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Electric city bus service rolls out in Panchkula
Flagging off five electric AC buses from the Sector-5 bus stand in Panchkula, Haryana assembly speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta announced that the bus service will be free for the next seven days
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday virtually inaugurated the electric city bus service for Panchkula and Karnal.
Flagging off five electric AC buses from the Sector-5 bus stand in Panchkula, Haryana assembly speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta announced that the bus service will be free for the next seven days.
For the inaugural run, Gupta, along with mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, and other dignitaries travelled from the bus stand till Shiv Mandir, Sector 9, in an electric bus.
Speaking from Chandigarh, the chief minister said the bus service had already been started in big cities of the state — Faridabad, Gurugram and Manesar, Panipat and Jagadari — and will soon be started in Rohtak, Hisar, Ambala, Sonepat and Rewari. So far, 375 electric buses have been procured for 12 cities.
Gupta said for now, five electric buses had been introduced in Panchkula and their number will be increased to 50 as per the need and demand of residents. “Each bus has a seating capacity of 45 people and 18 to 20 standing capacity. With 30 minutes of charging, it can be driven up to 200 km.”
He said the buses were equipped with public announcement system, passenger information system, panic button, CCTV Surveillance and ITMS-enabled system.
Bus service routes
The electric buses will leave from the Sector-5 bus stand and traverse through Sectors 4, 11, 10, 14-15 and 12-A before reaching the Singhpura bus stand. They will cover the same routes on return journey to reach the Sector-5 bus stand.
From the bus stand, they will further ply towards Housing Board Chowk via Sectors 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17 and 18. The first bus will leave from the bus stand at 6.30 am and the last bus will leave from Singhpura bus stand at 8.45 pm.
The fare has been fixed at ₹10 for 1 to 5 km, ₹15 for 5 to 8 km, ₹20 for 8 to 11 km, ₹25 for 11 to 14 km and ₹30 for 14 to 17 km.
