After the approval of 80 electric buses from the central government, the Chandigarh administration has started the process to run those buses on the road. According to information received from the Transport Department, tender for 80 electric buses will be issued next week.
On September 25, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had sanctioned 670 e-buses for Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat. As many as 80 e-buses were sanctioned for Chandigarh under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicle (FAME) India Scheme Phase-2.
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Transport Department director Uma Shankar Gupta said, “A fresh tender will be issued by the administration for electric buses. Apart from this, tenders of old 40 e-buses have also been sent for approval.”
“Actually, the government plans to make the country pollution free by 2022 under ‘FAME India’. Its objective is to provide hybrid and electrical vehicles to customers at cheap prices. Under this, hybrid and electrical two-wheelers and cars, instead of diesel and petrol infrastructure, will be developed across the country. To make this scheme a success, discounts will be given on two-wheeler, three-wheelers and cars. The second phase of this scheme has started for the next three years,” said Gupta.
In late August, due to Covid, the administration had deferred an offer to buy 40 electric buses. This decision was taken in view of shortage of funds. Under the proposal of CTU, diesel buses were to be replaced by the electric buses. The first phase of this proposal was to purchase 40 electric buses. A tender was floated earlier this year by the Chandigarh Transport Department to run 40 electric buses in the city. Two companies had applied for it but CTU did not like the rates they offered. So, it was decided to again float a tender but that did not happen due to the pandemic.
