Chandigarh Administration to hire 40 AC electric buses

The UT Administration has decided to hire 40 AC electric buses for a period of 10 years in order to improve the quality of air.

In September this year, the Centre had sanctioned 80 electric buses for the UT under Phase-II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme.

After getting approval from the Centre, the UT Administration has started the process for the procurement of the buses. Under the scheme, the Centre will provide Rs50-lakh subsidy for each bus to the seller.

80 buses sanctioned

In September, the Centre had sanctioned 80 electric buses for the UT under Phase-II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme.
A senior official of the Transport Department said a fresh tender for hiring the buses on the kilometre scheme for 10 years had been floated.

The procurement of the buses will give a major boost to the plan of the UT Administration to replace its entire fleet of ordinary buses of the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) with electric buses.

At present, the CTU has 514 buses — 361 buses run on local or suburban routes and 153 buses run on inter-state routes.

As the buses would not emit any pollution, it would improve the quality of air in the city, said the official.

Last year, when the Centre had refused to finance 40 electric buses, the UT Administration had decided to procure these buses on the basis of revenue sharing. The Administration had floated tenders for the purchase of the 40 electric buses in January, but it had to suspend it as the revenue had been hit hard due to the pandemic.