New Delhi | Delhi Metro will start handing over its fleet of 100 feeder e-buses to the city government from April, a senior official said on Tuesday.

At present, these e-buses are running on six routes in the city.

"The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will handover all the buses to the Delhi government from April 2023 onwards," the DMRC official told PTI.

These 100 e-buses are the first fleet of electric buses deployed by Delhi Metro in the city, he said.

Feeder buses are services to provide last-mile connectivity, and even DMRC smart cards are accepted for payment of fare charges.

DMRC officials had in July last year said that running Delhi Metro feeder buses in inner areas was “less viable” due to “under utilisation”.

Plan was that DMRC feeders buses would be taken up by the Delhi government's transport department for operations, they had said.

Late December last year, officials had said that the Delhi government would soon take over the DMRC's fleet of electric buses to strengthen last-mile connectivity.

The Cabinet had recently decided to take over 100 existing electric buses of the DMRC and also operate an additional 380 feeder buses under the transport department in 2023.

In a statement, the Delhi government had said, "DMRC has been operating feeder e-buses in east and north clusters since December 2019 from Shastri Park and Majlis Park depots. These buses will be run by the transport department through the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS).

"In addition, for the operation of additional 380 electric buses, six stations have been identified -- Welcome, Kohat Enclave, Rithala, Nangloi, Mundka and Dwarka." The depots at these locations will be constructed by the DMRC. The transport department will operate the feeder buses on a per-kilometre basis where operators will be paid on the basis of the distance covered during the day, officials had said.

DMRC officials had in July also said that the Delhi Metro would soon roll out its first e-auto service in the national capital, with a batch of 50 such vehicles to be launched from Dwarka Sector-9 station, a move that seeks to boost the last-mile connectivity for commuters.