Air conditioned double decker electric bus will run for the first time in the country

The number of electric vehicles is increasing in the country. In this series, the first air-conditioned double decker bus has been inducted into the fleet of Public Transport Corporation or BEST in Mumbai. However, this has been delayed by several months. This bus can ply on suburban routes in Mumbai where there are diesel double decker buses.

Lokesh Chandra, General Manager, BEST told That about 20 such buses are to arrive by the end of March. The number of double decker electric buses will increase to 200 by the end of this year. These buses are being supplied by Switch Mobility, a subsidiary of automobile company Ashok Leyland. Chandra said that these buses will be run on double decker bus routes in South Mumbai and suburbs. These buses have facilities like digital ticketing, CCTV cameras and panic buttons in case of emergency. The fare of these buses will be same as that of normal air conditioned buses.

Switch Mobility has informed that the certification of these buses has been delayed due to changes in the certification process by the central government. From April this year, about nine lakh vehicles older than 15 years of the central and state governments will be taken off the roads. New vehicles will take their place. These will also include buses of Transport Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings which are more than 15 years old. These vehicles will be scrapped. In the last year’s budget, a 25 per cent rebate in road tax was provided by the states and union territories on new vehicles purchased after scrapping the old vehicles. This Policy It came into force from April last year.

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari recently told that the government is taking measures to increase the use of ethanol, methanol, bio-CNG and bio-LNG and electric vehicles. He had said, “We have given approval for scrapping of more than nine lakh government vehicles that are more than 15 years old. This will take polluting cars and buses off the roads and replace them with new vehicles that use alternative fuels. There will be a significant reduction in pollution.” “After completion of 15 years from the initial registration of such vehicle, it shall be disposed of through a registered vehicle scrapping center as per the Motor Vehicles Rules,” said the notification issued by the government.