Eco-friendly ride: Electric buses to debut in Ahmedabad

The ride in city transport buses will be silent, smoother and environment-friendly from Thursday onwards as Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is going to start operating electric buses on certain routes on a regular basis. Union home minister Amit Shah will flag off 8 eight these buses at an event near Sola on Thursday.

Briefing media persons on Wednesday, mayor Bijal Patel said that this will be beginning of a journey for making the city cleaner and greener. A total of 50 buses will be rolled out, of which 32 will be regular electric buses, while the rest 18 will be swap technology, in which batteries will be swapped instead of regular charging.

Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said that this will reduce the weight of the buses and thereby enable it to carry more passengers.

"Each battery is about 600 kg. If more such batteries are required, the additional weight will reduce the number of passengers. There is a dedicated facility of fast charging and swap station at Ranip, where these batteries will be swapped. It takes about four minutes to replace the battery. The entire process is robotic and automated," said Nehra.

The facility can charge 12 batteries simultaneously. While normal electric buses can run up to 200 km per charge, buses with swap facility can run only up to 40 km. Regular buses will undergo overnight charging.

The buses are procured from Ashok Leyland under gross cost model, wherein Ashok Leyland will own, operate and maintain the buses, while AMC will pay the company at per kilometer rate. So, it is only operational expenses that AMC will have to bear, rather than capital and maintenance expenditure in a conventional model.

Nehra informed that trial runs have been conducted for about six months now and the services are being rolled out on a regular basis. Moreover, this is only the first batch of buses that AMC has received from the central government, and the second batch is expected to arrive in about two months.

Under the Faster Adaption and Manufacture of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, Ahmedabad will get 300 electric buses, only to be rivaled by cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Gujarat is getting 550 electric buses under the scheme, which aims to give 5,595 electric buses to 64 cities across the country.

Nehra informed that city will get another 32 electric buses in the second phase in about two months from now.

All About Electric Bus

• Each bus can carry upto 50 passengers. As these are electric buses, they will be silent and will not emit smoke. These are AC buses with automatic transmission and air suspension resulting in comfortable and smoother rides for passengers. It is equipped with automatic fire detection and suppression system to tackle to any eventuality of the bus catching fire. They also have automatic door sensors and the bus will not be able to start if the doors are open.

Mission Million Trees 

• Union home minister Amit Shah will also conclude the Mission Million Trees project that AMC had started on World Environment Day this year. Under this project, AMC claims that it has enabled planting of one million saplings since the launch of the programme. Apart from AMC, voluntary organizations from the city, educational institutes and corporates have participated.