Bhubaneswar: The Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) will add 40 more electric buses to its current fleet in view of the rush during Men’s Hockey World Cup, scheduled to be held from January 13 to 29 next year.
According to sources, the 40 new e-buses by ‘Mo Bus’ services will arrive around two weeks before the quadrennial world championship.
Currently, 10 e-buses are operating in the capital along with the conventional (diesel) buses in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack with daily transport to Puri. The e-buses will have all the facilities including better seats and CCTV cameras.
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“The addition of 40 buses will take the anticipated daily ridership to three lakhs. On Monday, the CRUT recorded the highest-ever daily ridership of 2.54 lakh. We have readied all required infrastructure for charging and maintenance of extra buses. Currently, one charging station is in operation at Chandrasekharpur and another will come up at Pokhariput,” TOI reported CRUT general manager Dipti Mohapatra as saying.
The introduction of e-buses was the first big initiative of the Odisha government after the implementation of the Electric Motor Vehicle Policy, 2021, to promote green transport.
It is pertinent to mention here that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik flagged off 10 e-buses and 50 e-rickshaws to make Bhubaneswar an environment-friendly city with less carbon emission on July 29.
