First electric bus arrives in city
Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 7
Residents of the city will soon see electric buses running on roads as the first such bus arrived here today.
To reduce pollution caused by the increasing number of vehicles in the city, the UT Administration has started the process of introducing electric buses in the city under its Smart City plan.
Before placing the order for the electric buses, the Transport Department had asked companies to ply the bus in the city on a trial basis.
An official of the department said Tata Motors had agreed to ply a bus in the city on a trial basis. During the trial run, officials of the department will see the effectiveness of the bus.
The bus has a seating capacity of 26 while nine passengers can stand inside it. Provision has also been made for two differently abled persons. The official said the electric bus was a zero-emission vehicle and was safer than the usual buses. It had all features for the safety of passengers, besides comfortable seating facilities. Electric buses are already running successfully abroad and trials are going on in some Indian cities, including New Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune. The CTU has made arrangements for charging buses at its depot. Officials of the company said the bus could run from 150 km to 180 km per charging. The operational cost of the bus was much lower than the usual bus. The CTU has invited expression of interest from manufactures of such buses. The companies have been asked to submit their proposal. Sources said work on the project started after approval from UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore, who had asked officials to develop the UT as a green city on the pattern of Bristol.
The Centre is providing subsidy to introduce zero-emission retrofitted electric buses under its flagship FAME India (faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles in India) scheme.
