Ghaziabad to start e-bus trial run this month, passenger operations from November

The development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off 75 e-buses in Lucknow under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME II) scheme for seven cities of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Ghaziabad

The city is set to get 20 air-conditioned electric buses which will operate on four identified routes from November, officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation said.

The city is set to get 20 air-conditioned electric buses which will operate on four identified routes from November. (HT Archive)

The development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off 75 e-buses in Lucknow under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME II) scheme for seven cities of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Ghaziabad.

The corporation officials said that the city will receive 20 low-floor buses of its scheduled 50 buses under the e-bus project and trial run will be initiated within this month.

“The PM flagged off e-buses for several cities, including Ghaziabad, and it paves way for the city to receive 20 buses in the first phase. We will initiate trial run of the project within this month to assess any operational issues. By the next month, we will start with the passenger operations,” said MS Tanwar, municipal commissioner and one of the directors of the Ghaziabad City Transport Services Limited (GCTSL).

Headed by divisional commissioner (Meerut), GCTSL is a special purpose vehicle formed for the purpose of operation of e-buses and has on board officials of different departments.

“The work for the required infrastructure and charging stations is ready. For the trial run, we will rope in two buses to assess operational issues on different routes,” Tanwar added.

For the operation of buses, the officials have identified four major routes which will cover a distance of about 88km per trip. The first route spanning 33km (one side) will connect some place near Anand Vihar to Muradnagar while the second route of 20km will connect Anand Vihar to ALT Centre in Raj Nagar. Another 20km route will connect some place near Dilshad Garden to Govindpuram while the fourth route of 15km will link different points from Tila Morh to New Bus Stand.

The municipal corporation has allotted 25,000 square metres of land at Akbarpur-Behrampur near Vijay Nagar where a maintenance depot has come up for the e-buses.