
Since there’s Metro Rail in Chandigarh, local buses act as the lifeline of the city. We have seen green and red coloured buses which are being operated by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking. As of now all these buses run on diesel. The good news is that CTU is planning to switch to a better & cleaner fuel for its fleet of buses in Chandigarh and this fuel will be electricity.
No CNG, no PNG and no diesel or petrol. CTU is planning to introduce electric buses in Chandigarh and it seems to be a perfect plan to save the city beautiful from increasing pollution.
The decision to introduce Electric Buses in Chandigarh
The announcement about Chandigarh getting electric buses was made by the UT advisor Parimal Rai during the republic day event at Parade ground in Sector 17. Electric buses
Recently, electric buses have been introduced in Himachal Pradesh and tests have been conducted on Manali-Rohtang road to run electric buses. Few years back, Delhi shifted from diesel buses to CNG and all public transport in Delhi now runs on CNG. According to stats, it has controlled the pollution levels to much extent.
With a similar thought in mind and to control the pollution levels in Chandigarh, all CTU buses would be made to run on electricity in the near future.
What Else is on cards?
Apart from Electric buses for Chandigarh, many other things are on cards for the year 2017 that might be implemented soon. Some major things include:
- Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) will be introduced for all sub-urban routes. Till now it has implemented in long route buses only.
- CTU will launch smart cards for travellers by which they can buy tickets without cash. Think of it as Delhi Metro card.
- Non-motorised roads will be developed along all major roads in the city.
- 220 kV Inter- state Transmission System (ISTS) GIS Grid Station will be set up at Hallomajra to reduce power cuts in the city.
For all these announcements, the ground work has been completed by the authorities and these things are expected to be implemented soon.