Delhi Govt Introduces AC Electric Tourist Bus Tours

The Delhi government will soon start an AC electric bus service to ferry tourists from Pradhanmantri Sanghrahalya to the War Memorial on an 'evening' tour.

The buses will have a certain coloured design to make them distinct. The city's tourism department plans to start the service by mid-July, said an official.

"We are planning to start evening tours from the Prime Minister Museum to the War Memorial for tourists. Through this, we plan to target foreigners and tourists who come to Delhi. There are plans to hire the new nine-metre electric buses from the DTC," the official said.

Since the museum closes by 6 pm, we will start the tour from there, and then we will proceed to other locations, he said.

"The bus ride will be priced at Rs 500 for adults and Rs 300 for children aged between six and 12. There will be a tourist guide onboard, who will inform the visitors about the significance of the places they are being taken to," the person said.

"We plan to hire the bus from DTC, and we will see what the response is. We plan to use the bus for school picnics in the morning. For that, we plan to collaborate with the Directorate of Education," the official added.

In her budget speech, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had announced that her government will develop a new tourist circuit covering the War Memorial, Kartavya Path, Prime Minister Museum and New Parliament House.

The tourism department had also discussed plans of reviving the Hop-on Hop-off (Ho Ho) buses model that was stalled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. However, it was felt that in a place like Delhi, the model is not sustainable.

"Abroad, the Ho-Ho buses are available at regular intervals. But in Delhi, that won't be possible considering the traffic situation.

"There were plans for having targeted tours — like having a tour of markets, heritage monuments, etc and having different colours of buses for that. But it was felt that people might visit heritage monuments, but won't like visiting malls or markets using the buses," the official added.