In a bid to curb air and noise pollution Kolkata is reportedly gearing up to bring 80 electric buses on its road from next month.
According to ET these electric buses will hit the street in phases. The transport department will add more only after seeing adoption and success rate of these 80 electric buses.
A transport department officer speaking to the publication said “These environment-friendly electric buses are symbols of future mobility. They do not require conductors to collect fares. The state is deciding on a uniform rate to simplify the automatic fare collection system.”
“We want to see the versatility of these buses in long run. The days are not far when our entire fleet will have such environment-friendly buses,” a senior official of the department said to the publication.
Electric buses will not only cut down pollution level by replacing the diesel fleet but also avoid the flak that it attracted from the National Green Tribunal for conventional buses.
Transport department has bought 30 battery chargers for the terminals, according to the report 10 fast or turbo battery chargers will be placed along the routes for emergency. The routes will be charted out in such a way that a bus can make three round trips after one full charge. The government is considering installing rooftop solar cells that can recharge the batteries on the run.
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