Tirupati: Temple city to get 50 e-buses soon

Tirupati: Giving a major push to the use of electric vehicles for which the future belongs, about 50 e-buses will soon hit the roads of pilgrim city as part of the government's initiative towards electric vehicle policy.

It was said to be planning to buy about 1,000 e-buses on the whole and during the first phase about 350 buses will be purchased for major cities like Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Amaravati. Of them Tirupati will get 50 buses.

The benefit of e-buses is zero-emission thereby improving the quality of air. Tirupati region has reportedly asked for 350 e-buses so that entire fleet of buses between Tirupati and Tirumala can be replaced from the existing BS-IV standard buses.

Accordingly, it was learnt that 50 buses were sanctioned in the first phase which in all possibility may ply between Tirupati and Tirumala and a few buses to Srikalahasti and Tiruchanur. As and when more buses are sanctioned then they will be pressed into use for Tirumala pilgrims.

However, the conventional charging system limits the driving distance and charging systems that enable long driving distance are very expensive. With one full charge of about three hours these buses can run up to about 250 kilometres. According to an official of the APSRTC, charging stations will be set up at Alipiri, Mangalam, Tirumala and Srikalahasti depots.

With a seating capacity of 40, electric buses will have modern passenger amenities and are said to be safe as they are equipped with safety measures and protected from short circuits.

As they require charging after every 250 kms of travel, these electric buses may not be suitable to operate to the cities beyond that distance. These buses will no doubt help RTC to come out of fuel burden as the Corporation was spending huge amount on diesel there by it can improve the financial health of it.

According to an estimate, it costs the Corporation Rs 20 for a kilometre with diesel and with electric buses they can save up to Rs 14 per km and the vehicles do not need the same level of services like diesel engine requires. More than a year ago, an electric bus made by Goldstone company in which a few drivers were trained too.

The bus made trial runs to Tirumala and the feedback was submitted to RTC management then itself. However, it was not clear which company buses will be bought by the Corporation now. The transition towards the use of electric buses gradually by the public sector undertakings was expected to motivate private users also to follow suit.

The Central government has been giving top priority for the use of a electric vehicles to curb pollution and has announced many sops for the sector. It has announced setting up of charging stations too in the coming days. APSRTC has also been moving in this direction to reduce the fuel cost and thereby its net losses.