Smart City to ply electric buses after Diwali

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) municipal commissioner, G Sreekanth, confessed that the arrival of 35 electric buses is being delayed for a while, but they will be plying on the roads in the city after Diwali for sure.

“The proposed hiring of the above number of e-buses was approved by the board of directors (BoDs) of the Smart City Mission. The company manufacturing the electric buses is ready to spare the vehicles, but the Smart Bus depot works which are underway at Jadhavwadi has not yet been completed totally. It will be of no use if there are no charging stations for the e-buses. Hence the delay in ariving of the buses is taking place,” said the civic chief.

To strengthen the urban transport in the city the Smart City Mission purchased 100 diesel buses from Tata Company in 2018. Meanwhile, there are instructions from the state government to use e-buses to reduce the growing threat of pollution in the city. Hence it was decided to hire the 35 e-buses. An agreement has been signed with an Hyderabad-based company in this regard, it is learnt.

When the civic chief was told that the company, in June, has agreed upon delivering 15 buses under first phase and 20 buses in second phase. Besides, the Smart City team also inspected these buses. Referring to this point, G Sreekanth said, “The development of Smart City bus depot at Jadhavwadi is underway. There will be e-charging facilities for charging of these buses, presently this facility is not available. Hence after completion of the bus depot means after Diwali the e-buses will arrive in the city,” he pointed out.

Second meeting with APMC

There is a conflict going on between the CSMC and Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) over the issue of land for the bus depot. The committee has given the land to the municipal corporation. It had also taken the compensation of it, but an agreement was due. Hence my focus is on how to find a way out in this matter. One meeting with them has been done and one more will be held soon, said the civic chief.

We will also try to resolve the issues including the property tax and water supply through the meeting with APMC, he said.