Soon, electric bus service in the city of Ghaziabad is expected to start in October. The electric vehicles will be plying on six routes in the first phase. Along with connecting important places across the city, the buses will also provide direct connectivity to Noida and Delhi.
Officials said that around 50 vehicles will hit the roads initially and the work to build a depot and a charging station at Akbarpur Behrampur is almost over. Electric buses are crucial to Ghaziabad, which is one of the most polluted cities in the country. The depot will be equipped with charging points for 25 buses at a time. While the longest route is between Anand Vihar and Muradnagar (40km), the shortest is between Tilla Mod and New Bus Adda (12km).
Mahendra Singh Tanwar, commissioner, Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation stated – “We expect the service to start by the end of October. Being built at a cost of Rs 9.5 crore, the bus depot in Akbarpur Behrampur is almost ready. It will double up as a charging station. We expect that the fleet of 50 electric buses will be ready soon.”
Initially,12 routes were selected for the e-bus service and later, 10 were finalised.
AK Singh, the regional manager, UPSRTC – “Of the 10 routes, the service will start on six in the first phase. We will add four routes at a later stage”. The six routes are, Anand Vihar-Muradnagar (40 km), Anand Vihar-ALT Centre (30 km), Dilshad Garden-Govindpuram (20 km), Dilshad Garden-Lal Kuan (17 km), Police Lines-Noida City Centre (28 km) and Tilla More-New Bus Adda (12 km). The routes have been selected in a way that they pass through important metro stations, bus stands and railway stations.
The e-buses will run on the routes every 30 minutes. The rate card is not yet finalised. But tentatively, the price for the first 3 km will be Rs 5 and every 3 km after that, it will go up by Rs 5. Once fully charged, each bus would be able to run for about 180 km. Each vehicle will have CCTV and GPS and they will be monitored from a unit set up at the UPSRTC office in Kaushambi.