NEW DELHI - There’s good news for those who commute by the Delhi Metro. They will be able to travel to the Metro stations in air-conditioned feeder buses by January next year.

“The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has placed an order to purchase 300 air-conditioned CNG buses to act as feeder buses that will provide comfortable connectivity to metro stations, DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said in a statement.

While the first lot of the 75 buses will be available in six months, 75 more buses will roll out every month so that all 300 buses are ready in nine months. Each bus will cost the DMRC over Rs.1.9 million.

“The bus will have powerful air-conditioners to achieve a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius within 10 minutes of the engine starting even in extreme summer conditions.

“The buses will also have pneumatic air suspension, as available in state-run low-floor buses, for greater comfort, wide doors between 800 to 1,000 mm, power-operated by driver and semi-low floor design, Dayal said explaining the features of the buses.

He added that the 26-seater-buses will also be customized to incorporate DMRC requirements. Destination display boards will be installed on the front and side of the buses. They will also have a public address system and provisions for ticket vending machines.

“Although the fares for travel on these feeder buses has not been decided, they are likely to be the same as the Delhi Transport Corporation fares for AC buses at Rs.10 to Rs.15, another DMRC spokesperson said.

The Metro’s AC buses are being manufactured by Swaraj Mazda company while its 120 non-AC buses plying on 15 routes were manufactured by Tata Motors.

DMRC presently has 68 operational stations and another 76 will be added when the Phase-II is completed by October 2010.

Delhi Metro operates three hugely popular lines connecting the northern, central, eastern and southwestern parts of Delhi. Around 800,000 commuters daily use the network covering a total of 190 km.