Minimum fare for electric bus will be Rs 15 after trial run: Transport Minister

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has begun operating the Ashok Leyland-manufactured, battery-operated air-conditioned bus on trial basis between Central Railway Station and Thiruvanmiyur via Mylapore and Adyar on route number A1.

“During the trial run, the passengers will be charged Rs 11 as minimum fare and Rs 25 as the maximum. When we start running the buses permanently, we will charge Rs 15 as minimum fare,” he told reporters after inspecting an electric bus manufactured by Hyderabad-based AMS at Central depot on Pallavan Salai.

The transport minister said that MTC is planning to operate 300 electric buses in the city. “The Central Government has approved the Fame INDIA - II programme to purchase 525 electric buses and operate them in several cities including Madurai, Coimbatore, Vellore, Trichy and Tanjore. We have submitted a proposal to purchase 300 electric buses to Chennai. We hope it will be approved soon. Based on that, Tamil Nadu will get a total of 825 electric buses. The central government will subsidise Rs 50 lakh per bus,” he said

Noting that Tamil Nadu is the first state in the country to sign a clean bus declaration with C40 cities climate leadership group, he said with the financial assistance from German funding agency KFW, steps are being taken to gradually buy 2000 electric-powered buses and 12,000 BS-VI buses to protect the environment and reduce air pollution.

Vijayabhaskar said that the electric bus manufactured by AMS is 12-meter-long and has a 40-seating capacity while the Ashok Leyland electric bus is 9.5-meter-long and has a 32-seating capacity. “There are many modern amenities such as GPS, CCTV camera and monitoring of bus operation,” he said.

“The electric bus would be consuming one to 1.5 unit of energy per kilometre if it is operated with the ACs. Without the ACs, the electric bus will consume one unit of energy per km,” he said.