Smart City firm, on pollution watch, plans to buy 31 e-buses
Mar 30, 2018, 07:23 IST
PUNE: The Pune Smart CityDevelopment Corporation Limited (PSCDCL) may purchase 31 buses which run on electricity in a pilot project.
A proposal put forth to the corporation’s board states that around Rs 70 crore will be set aside to purchase 50 to 60 e-buses but to start with, 31 buses can be bought. The board’s directors discussed the proposal at a meeting on Thursday.
The Union government wants to promote electrical vehicles in the country under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020.
However, the plan to raise the number of electric buses in 11 cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Delhi hit a bump recently.
The department of heavy industries has pruned the ambit of giving subsidy to the state transport utilities for procuring electric buses
According to its announcement four months ago, each selected city was to get Rs 105 crore subsidy for electric buses and electric cars. The ministry of heavy industries and public enterprise planned to give Rs 1 crore per bus. The government declared the first phase beneficiaries, but Pune was out.
“We were waiting for funds from the Union government as the cost of the electric buses is high. However, in some recent deals involving these buses, the prices have gone down. So it will be possible for the civic body to purchase some buses on its own. We will wait for the second phase of the subsidy or take a call on procuring buses after April 10,” additional commissioner Rajendra Jagtap told TOI.
He said as per the first estimate each bus was to cost around Rs 1.25 core, but the manufacturers have cut down the price to around Rs 85 lakh.
Greenhouse gas emission will reduce and it will save Rs 2 per km for the public transport body. The option of using bio-ethanol buses was a costly considering the mileage and price of the buses, the proposal said.
The buses will be handed over to Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited which is working on a plan to develop a fleet of 500 e-buses in the city.
Activists and experts supported the idea to reduce pollution but observed that there is much more to the procurement of e-buses than what meets the eye.
“The public transport body had procured CNG buses but they were handed over to a private operator because PMPML did not have adequate facilities to operate them. The procurement of new age vehicles should not be done unless the public transport body is fully prepared to deal with them. Focus should be on giving services to the commuters,” Jugal Rathi of PMP Pravasi Manch, a citizens’ group, said.
Source : The Times Of India
