Chandigarh: After a trial of 3 months, Chandigarh administration has decided to buy 20 electric buses for local routes in a bid to curb pollution. The administration will issue a request for proposal (RFP). ‘’After choosing a seller and completing formalities, the buses “should be here within two months” said transport secretary KK Jindal. 

Jindal also added by saying that since the cost of each electric bus is very high at Rs 1.5 crore, a similar diesel bus with AC costs approximately Rs 25 lakh these will be brought under a central government scheme, in which 60% of the cost will be borne by the Union ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises. This reduces the effective cost to the UT to Rs 60 lakh. The key difference, apart from electric buses being zero-emission, is in the running cost. While diesel buses cost Rs 18 a km on this count, electric buses run for Rs 5 a km. 

UT administrator VP Singh Badnore give permission to the project in November last year, and CTU started the process of introducing electric buses in the city under the Smart City plan. The zero-emission ability of the buses comes also at a time when the air quality of the city has been recorded frequently in the ‘very poor’ bracket. There was no division, however, immediately available on how much of that is caused by vehicular pollution. 

At the same time, it must be mentioned that Chandigarh has the highest per capita car density in India, with the number of cars outnumbering the population. Passengers travelling to Delhi and places in Punjab and Uttarakhand from Chandigarh can expect better services from CTU as the UT transport department wants to add 40 ‘super luxury’ buses for these routes.