In a major boost to urban mobility with a thrust on eco-friendly modes of public transport, Mysuru is among 181 cities in the country identified under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI) of the “PM-eBus Sewa”, a Central government project for enlarging the city bus operations, and is expected to expand its intra-city operations’ fleet with 100 new electric buses.
The project is being implemented under Public-Private Partnership model with a sizable financial support from the Centre.
The allocation of buses has come at a time when many existing buses in the Mysuru division of KSRTC are being phased out after having completed 15 years. Such buses cannot hit the roads after exceeding their running capacity as per the Central government norms. This has led to an urgent need for new buses with the passenger load gone up by two folds following the launch of Shakti – a scheme offering free rides for women in State transport buses.
The authorities in Mysuru are expecting a formal inspection of the Mysuru division by the Central government authorities before the buses are delivered for expanding the operations.
“We have been told that Mysuru has been allotted 100 e-buses under the PM eBus Sewa. The inspection by the Central government authorities is awaited. We don’t know when the buses will be delivered but the Centre has proposed to encourage green urban mobility and hence the project was launched,” said KSRTC Mysuru Divisional Controller G. Srinivas.
Under GUMI, the identified cities will also be getting charging infrastructure because of big promotion to e-mobility. One of the key reasons for the adoption of e-mobility initiatives was to bring down noise and air pollution, and curb carbon emissions. The push to bus-based ‘green’ public transportation was aimed at reducing the green-house gas emissions.
When it comes to new initiatives under urban transport, Mysuru gets the priority since it provided a platform for the launch of several pilot projects, including some by the KSRTC.
The electric bus rides between Mysuru and Bengaluru was launched in January this year and the response to the rides was overwhelming.
KSRTC received the prototype of the electric bus under the FAME-2 scheme in December 2022. The electric bus has been named as ‘EV - Power Plus’. It later inducted more electric buses, and deployed them on various routes, including Madikeri, Shivamogga, Davanagere and other key cities.
The Hyderabad-based company that supplied the e-buses will be operating the buses as per the contract it has entered into with the KSRTC. The company will operate and maintain buses for a certain number of years. The KSRTC will be paying the company on kilometre basis. The total number of seats in each bus is 47.
KSRTC operates the maximum number of Airavatha and Club Class services in the Bengaluru-Mysuru sector. Keeping this in mind, the KSRTC chose this sector for the launch of the first-ever electric intercity service in January this year. The relevant infrastructure for supporting the operation such as the charging station had been readied both in Bengaluru and Mysuru.
