Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited starts trial run of 7m-long e-bus

PUNE: The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited has commenced the trial run a seven-metre-long e-bus, mainly to be operated in crowded areas of the city and to Sinhagad Fort post-monsoon, besides for Metro rail feeder service later.
"At present, one bus has come and its being tested. A total of 300 such buses are expected to come in phases by the yearend. We are making the bus travel through crowded areas of the city and check its performance. Being very small, this type of buses can easily manoeuvre through heavy traffic and narrow roads. While 200 such buses would be used in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) area, a total of buses would ply in Pimpri Chinchwad," Dattatraya Zende, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML)'s traffic manager, told TOI.
Another official said apart from the Metro service, this type of buses would ply to Sinhagad Fort. "A couple of months ago, PMPML had started e-bus service to the historical site. During the trial run, it came to light that nine-metre-long e-buses were not apt for operations in the ghat section. Hence, it was decided that these smaller buses would be used. With the Sinhagad Fort service expected to resume after the monsoon, the bus would be tested in the ghat section as well," the official said.
The seating capacity of the seven-metre long e-bus is 20, including the driver. A total of around 30 passengers can travel in such buses. "We had started operating six buses on as many routes as feeder service after the Pune Metro operations started. But we had to stop the service because the earnings were dismal," the official said.