Two electric buses start plying on Navi Mumbai roads

Two electric bus recently purchased by Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) hit the city roads on Wednesday.

Two electric bus recently purchased by Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) hit the city roads on Wednesday.

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Last year, NMMT had ordered 30 electric bus and 15 of them have been delivered at Turbhe bus depot so far.

Shirish Aradwad, general manager of NMMT, said, “After receiving the 15 buses, the RTO started the legal process of issuing their registration numbers. On Tuesday, they cleared the formalities of two buses and we started running the buses on Wednesday.”

“The buses were run on Ghansoli-Kopar Khairane-Vashi route and we are getting a good response. The remaining 13 buses will ply in the city by Monday or Tuesday,” he said.

The central government provided the NMMT with 60% subsidy in the buses and 10% subsidy in the charging facilities under their Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (and Hybrid) Vehicles (FAME) in India. With this subsidy in place, the NMMT is spending ₹1.28 crore in each bus and ₹3.48 crore in the charging stations, a senior officer said.

Shalini Manoj, 38, a resident of Kopar Khairane said, “I travelled from Kopar Khairane to Vashi in an electric bus on Wednesday. The bus was very nice and comfortable and I really enjoyed the travelling.”

Aradwad said they are expecting 15 more buses to arrive in the next one week.