e-buses helped Chandigarh Administration save fuel worth Rs 28 crore in over 3 yrs

The UT Transport Department saved on nearly 34 lakh litres of diesel worth Rs 28 crore by plying electric buses on local routes in the past three and a half years.

Pradhuman Singh, Director, Transport, said the electric buses had covered 1.7 crore km on intra-city routes till June 1, thus saving over 34.05 lakh-litre diesel. It also helped prevent 8,991.50 tonne CO2 emission. As per standard, 2.64 kg of CO2 emission was saved per litre of diesel, he added.

Procured in November 2021, 80 e-buses are in service in the tricity. To provide eco-friendly transportation in the city, the department plans to procure 100 more e-buses this year.

Each bus covers a distance of nearly 130 km on a single charge. It takes nearly two hours to fully charge a vehicle. With a seating capacity of 36, a bus can carry a maximum of 54 people at a time. On an average, each bus covers 200-300 km a day.

The Administration has plans to replace the entire fleet of 358 diesel buses of the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU), running both on local as well as suburban routes, with electric ones by 2027-28.

The State-Level Steering Committee has decided to replace 100 diesel buses with e-vehicles sanctioned by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to Chandigarh under the Centre-sponsored PM e-Bus Sewa Scheme. The ministry will be requested to allocate 80 more buses to the city under the scheme.