Chandigarh saved fuel worth ₹17 cr via e-buses

Mar 19, 2024 07:10 AM IST

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Launched in November 2021, as many as 80 electric buses are currently plying on city roads. More than 1.51 crore passengers have travelled in these buses in over 27 months

With the introduction of electric buses in the city in November 2021, UT transport department has saved nearly 20.38 lakh litre of diesel worth ₹17 crore so far, officials said.

Chandigarh transport director Pradhuman Singh said, “The electric buses have so far covered a distance of 1.01 crore km on intra-city routes, saving 20.38 lakh litre of diesel and preventing 5,380.42 tonne carbon emission.” (HT File)

Launched in November 2021, as many as 80 electric buses are currently plying on city roads. More than 1.51 crore passengers have travelled in these buses in over 27 months.

UT transport director Pradhuman Singh said, “The electric buses have so far covered a distance of 1.01 crore km on intra-city routes, saving 20.38 lakh litre of diesel and preventing 5,380.42 tonne carbon emission.”

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

100 more e-busesto be procured

The state-level steering committee (SLSC) has decided to replace 100 diesel buses in the UT with e-buses sanctioned by the ministry of housing and urban affairs under the Centrally-sponsored PM e-Bus Sewa Scheme.

It was decided that the ministry will again be requested to allocate 70 more buses to the city under PM e-Bus Sewa scheme.

The procurement will give a fillip to the administration’s plan of replacing the entire fleet of 350 diesel buses of the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU), running on both local and suburban routes, with electric vehicles by 2027-28.

EV adoption by city residents

Apart from public transport, the share of private electric vehicles (EVs) is also increasing in the city. In UT, takers of e-vehicles has increased during the period of September 2023 to January 2024 with 578 EV registrations in September 2023, 598 in October, 659 in November, 661 in December and 562 EV registrations in January 2024. The e-vehicle adoption rate among the residents of the city also saw a positive trend from 14.9% to 15.66% in the said period. Private vehicles reduced over 352.6 tonne of carbon emissions in the year 2023.

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Incentives for EVs

So far, 2,881 people in Chandigarh have been given an incentive of ₹17.77 crore for buying EVs. Chandigarh has the largest public bike sharing system in the country with 10 lakh rides covering an area of 41 lakh km, saving more than 1,010 tonne of carbon emissions.