BENGALURU: After taking various aspects into consideration, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has decided to not to purchase diesel buses in the coming days. It has sent a proposal to the government to purchase electric buses in order to reduce air pollution, and given the fact that diesel prices have risen considerably.
The transport utility had invited a tender for purchasing 480 diesel buses and that will be the last such proposal. This year, the BMTC has given priority to buying electric buses by deciding not to go in for diesel buses in future, the corporation is heading to becoming an eco-friendly public transporter.
The corporation is plan to induct 1,200 electric buses in three phases which will hit the roads by August this year. Corporation Managing Director Satyavati said an order has been passed to acquire electric buses from Tata Motors. “About 20 buses will be inducted by April and will run on a trial basis”, she said.
She further said, “A total of 921 electric buses out of 1,500 from Tata Motors were allocated to us by the Union government. We signed an agreement with the company on December 16 last year. They have to present a prototype bus by March and then it will be rolled out. We have assigned two bus depots for the buses at Shantipuram and K R Puram. All the remaining 843 buses will come by end of August 2023. We are introducing more electric buses because today’s children should get the experience and knowledge about public transport.”
Five EV double decker buses have been allotted to the BMTC through the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and five more EV buses have been allotted under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) through BBMP. A tender had called for all ten buses, Satyavati added.