Electric buses may soon ply on select routes in the city.
On Friday, Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar chaired a high-level meeting of transport officials and a C40 Cities Clean Bus Declaration team at the Secretariat.
“Already a private consultancy is involved in creating a road map for introducing the electric buses. The C40 team came to study the technical feasibility, prevailing infrastructure facilities including the electricity system and working of the bus depots,” said a senior official.
In March this year, Chennai become the first Indian city to sign an agreement with the C40 Cities Clean Bus Declaration to reduce carbon emissions by incorporating electric buses in the transport system.
The electric bus technology involves sophisticated systems in which the C40 team has expertise, having introduced it in 25 cities across the world. “C40 will be playing an advisory role on the kind of battery technology to be used, infrastructure changes in bus routes, financing and other important elements,” the official said.
The C40 team also held meetings with officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation as well as the Metropolitan Transport Corporation.
The Transport Department has already completed a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on introducing electric buses and has forwarded the report to the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises for purchasing 70 electric buses at a cost of ₹140 crore in the first phase.
Of the ₹140 crore required, the Centre will give ₹105 crore and the rest will be provided by the State government, officials said.
With 2015 as the baseline, the C40 team had estimated carbon dioxide emissions in the city to be 19.17 million tonnes per year. As transport accounted for 26% of carbon emissions at source, the C40 team identified mass transport as the major emission reduction area.