The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) on Thursday started a trial run of electric buses. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa was present along with Transport Minister and Deputy CM Laxman Savadi for the inauguration of the trial run. However, according to officials, full-fledged electric bus services won’t start any time soon as the BMTC will try out different manufacturers before deciding on the private contractor. As part of this trial, 90 buses will run in the city on a daily basis.
These buses provided by Hyderabad-based Olectra Greentech are 12-metre-long and air-conditioned with a seating capacity of 34 passengers. A release by the Transport Minister’s office said that the buses can run 200-250 km on a single charge of 2-3 hours and has a fast-charging option of 15-20 minutes.
While many Indian cities including neighbouring Chennai are already running e-buses, Bengaluru is lagging behind even though the first trial run of an e-bus by a government body was carried out in Bengaluru in 2014.
Subsequently, BMTC had missed the first part of the union government’s FAME (‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric vehicles (FAME)’ ) subsidy scheme. Although delayed, the state government is likely to induct 300 such e-buses as part of the FAME-II scheme by end of 2020.
Under this scheme, the state government will spend Rs 33 lakh per bus while the Union government will pay Rs 55 lakh. However, due to drop in revenue collection, the state government has proposed no expenditure be incurred in the current year.
“The GoK has approved and informed to prepare action plan with the condition of not to incur any expenditure in the current year. The DHI, Gol has informed that the supply order for operation of electric buses shall be issued before 31st December 2020,” Savadi said in a statement.