Of late, we’ve been hearing a lot about eco-friendly electric buses making their way into the streets of Jaipur. Earlier, the goal of the JCTSL was to have these buses up and running before the election season. However, once the model code of conduct was put into place, the buses could not be procured by the JCTSL. Now that the election fever is over, JCTSL has begun the process of getting these eco-friendly buses on road.
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What’s the update?
The JCTSL had put out a proposal earlier for a total of 600 buses. Finally, we are getting closer to the day when we will actually see such buses on Jaipur roads. The existing buses (which are not eco-friendly) require a lot of maintenance. Owing to this, the cost of actually running the buses on the streets is very high and they often break down when commuting.
The existing buses will be let out slowly from the fleet to make way for the new ones. As per the rules, it is necessary for a bus to complete either eight years or 6 lakh kilometres, whichever condition is met first, to replace it. Since the buses are in a bad condition, neither of the conditions have been met.
The facts
As part of the new fleet of buses, there will be a total of 600 such buses that will hit the roads. Of the 600 buses, 300 are medium sized electric buses, which are low floor, have state of the art facilities and are in general convenient for the citizens.
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There are 50 more electric buses in the fleet but they will have the usual bus size. Additionally, another 250 buses which are part of the fleet are 12-meter diesel buses. Though they are not all that eco friendly, they should perform better than the existing buses.
As per officials, the buses should start plying on the roads of Jaipur by the end of this year and the fleet of buses would be ready by November. The buses will certainly herald a new era of public transport in the city and we hope to see similar practices expand to other cities as well.
