BENGALURU: Electric buses are likely to start plying on the city streets by the end of this year.
“Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will procure 150 electric buses by September,” said BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur. She was addressing the second UITP India seminar on IT solutions for public transport here on Monday.
Caur said electronic buses are more sustainable for State Transport Undertakings (STUs). “They are environment- friendly, require less maintenance and give more comfort to the passengers. Operational cost of electric buses is also less compared to diesel vehicles,” Caur added.
The BMTC board had recently given in-principle approval for funding support from Union government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles scheme of National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020. This is the first time a state-run transport corporation is inducting a large number of electric buses to its fleet.
Single transport app
Caur said they are also toying with the idea of a single integrated multimodal transport mobile application.
“We could use the data collected from BMTC’s Integrated Transport System(ITS)for integration of various multimodal transport. ITS will help in better coordination of other modes of transport, including BMTC, Metro and Taxi services. Sharing of data on one platform will attract people towards using public transport,” she said.
She added: “It will also help improve operational efficiency, planning, fleet management, cashless transactions and dynamic passenger information. For instance, ITS will provide estimated time of arrival of buses in advance so that people can plan the journey accordingly.”
“Over the years, the number of two-wheelers in the city has increased drastically, which is the reason for the rise in accidents. If public transport system is made more reliable and affordable, more people will shift from private vehicles, including bikes to buses.”
Private participation
Caur said participation of private firms can be taken into account to improve the STUs. “Private firms can assist STUs in terms of technology and operations,” she said. Express recently reported that the bus utility will also allow private firms to operate 1,500 buses under aggregator model to attract commuters.