Nearly a month after its launch, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC)’s fleet of electric buses seems to have generated a lukewarm response, with the occupancy ratio hovering around 20-25%.
The BYD-Olectra fleet of 40 e-buses was launched in the first week of March at the Miyapur–2 Bus Depot. While 20 e-buses will be operated from here, another 20 have been ferrying passengers from the Jubilee Bus Station by means of the Cantonment Depot.
“The occupancy is a little low — 20% to 25%. Having said that, more time is required to comment on the popularity or performance of the e-buses. Steps will soon be taken to give more publicity to our initiative of zero emission transportation. As it is, we are trying to give passengers the best commute as each e-bus makes four trips to the airport,” says a senior TSRTC official.
The official said that along several routes to the airport, the e-buses have either replaced or augmented Volvo and Marcopolo buses. For instance, the JBS to RGIA via Secretariat route now has 10 e-buses which have replaced the six Volvo buses.
Similarly, JNTU to RGIA now has 16 e-buses. While there were five Volvo buses and three Marcopolo buses plying on the BHEL to RGIA route, it now has seven Volvo buses and four e-buses. All the six Marcopolo buses have been replaced on the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station to RGIA route by six new e-buses
‘Reduce fare’
Commuters, too, have noted that the e-buses carry few passengers. S.R. Chaitanya, who recently travelled by e-bus, says the TSRTC should make greater efforts to publicise the non-polluting buses and efforts should be made to reduce the fare.
“The RTC should publicise the availability of these e-buses in the IT corridor. Further, we can see that some times, the stops for these e-buses are different from regular ones. Concerted efforts must be made to identify stops which are closer to public movement. Also, I believe the fare of these e-buses should not be more than ₹200. That way, there will be more takers,” he says.