VIJAYAWADA: The State government has given its approval to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) to operate 100 electric buses in Tirupati to curb environmental pollution. If everything goes as planned, 50 electric buses will be introduced between Tirupati and Tirumala and 50 inter-city services in the temple town in the next four months.
The APSRTC had invited tenders in five packages for introducing 350 air-conditioned electric buses, including 100 buses each in Tirupati and Visakhapatnam and 50 each in Vijayawada, Guntur and Kakinada. Hyderabad-based EV Trans Pvt Ltd (Electra) has bagged the tender for the operation of electric buses on Tirumala Ghat Road and in Tirupati Urban.
EV Trans has expressed its readiness to run electric buses at the same operational cost as diesel AC buses per km. In the process, the RTC has finalised the electric bus tenders at the lowest price in the country, claimed officials. The Uttarakhand government has finalised the electric bus tenders on ghat roads of Dehradun at Rs 66.78 per km, including power charges. Comparatively, the RTC has approved the electric bus tenders on Tirumala Ghat Road at Rs 52.52 per km. In Dehradun, 27+1 seating capacity buses were introduced, while the e-buses to be run between Tirupati and Tirumala will be of 35+1 seating capacity.
Tenders for operation of electric buses in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Kakinada have been cancelled as the companies which bagged the tenders, sought an additional Rs 10 per km in Vijayawada, Rs 8 per km in Guntur and Rs 6 per km in Kakinada and Vizag, RTC Executive Director (Engineering) P Krishna Mohan said.