The Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) is putting off its plans to add 100 minibuses to its fleet. Officers mentioned that the point of interest now shifts to purchasing 150 electric buses as a replacement.
GMCBL approved this plan just six months ago, and now it has decided to abandon the proposal to purchase 100 CNG-run minibuses.
“The December 2021 approval of the project for minibuses was given. However, it was decided not to proceed with it as the government encourages electric vehicles,” a senior official of the company stated.
“We will purchase electric buses instead of the 100 minibuses we had planned to buy earlier.” “The Haryana transport department will be procuring electric buses for the whole state,” the source said. This is in addition to the fact that GMCBL last month informed the federal government that it would need “midi electric buses”, which could be 9 metres long.
Officers stated that the procurement of electric buses will take at most 6-7 months. This is at a time when the city has 200 buses and 50 buses were sent to Faridabad.
The buses that were lent to the neighboring town may not be returned to the GMCBL this year. The procurement process can take anywhere from six to seven months. We cannot get our 50 buses back until Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority buys its buses.
Professionals say Gurgaon must increase its public shipping network as there are approximately 80,000 people who travel in buses every day.
“Gurgaon requires at least 500 additional buses in the near future to comfortably cater for the rising demand,” stated highway protection specialist Sarika Panda Bhatt.
“In the past six months, plans to add more buses have been changed and rescheduled. This constant back-and-forth is what delays projects while commuters, residents, and businesses pay the price. Why don’t authorities spend the time to coordinate their efforts, and ensure that a single plan gets implemented, rather than wasting time,” asked Narender Kumar, who is a resident at Adarsh Nagar.
Experts also suggested that the switch to electric automobiles was a good construction. Bhatt stated that electric vehicles are an attractive investment because they require little maintenance and have low upkeep costs.
“The best thing is that towns want to expand charging infrastructure to ensure that the device works well. She said that she expected officers to have considered this when planning for electric buses.”
