Limited charging points a roadblock for TSRTC's e-buses in Hyderabad?

HYDERABAD: With just 24 charging points available, are the TSRTC’s 40 e-buses — each of which require four hours of uninterrupted charging — already facing the road blocks?

Experts in the know-how point out that the new environment-friendly buses will not able to take more than three trips in a day.

The cash-strapped corporation has created 12 charging points each at Miyapur and Cantonment depots where the buses will be stationed. There are 90 bus drivers who are being trained to operate these zero-emission electric buses.  

“The 40 buses will run over 300 kilometers in a day on a full battery power. Each bus requires four hours of uninterrupted charging for the battery to reach 100 per cent. A fully charged bus can take up to three rides to and fro from the depots to the airport after which it needs to be charged again,” explained Ravindra Babu, chief engineer of Olectra, the bus manufacturer.

However, it is a contested argument that e-buses will reduce its charging power based on the stress that is put on the engine through speed variation and passenger capacity.

When enquired about the charging durability of the buses given the distance the buses have to travel, RTC officials said that the 12 points for charging the 20 buses in each of the depots seems manageable given the speed of charging per bus.

“There should not be a problem with respect to charging of buses. While we are yet to see how much units of energy each bus will consume, we are planning for running the buses according to a fixed schedule. The first bus from the depot will start as early as 3.00 in the morning,” an RTC senior official said.

“We will get to organise the operation of the buses only after we get them. For now, test drives are going on in the city,” he said.  The 90 drivers are being trained by a former RTC official.