TSRTC to ply 100 e-buses on Hyderabad roads soon

The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation had recently operated battery-enabled e-bus with 324 kw of power to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad for a month on an experimental basis with the help of a company which manufactured the e-bus. The officials operated the bus to RGI Airport for a few weeks to check its efficacy. The officials were impressed with its performance. 

The Centre has proposed to provide 100 buses with 60 per cent of the cost as subsidy.The Union government in its budget had proposed to subsidise the cost of the e-bus in its bid to reduce air pollution in cities. 

The Centre proposed to give subsidy to 100 buses to the corporation.The RTC is planning to invite private transport



operators to purchase the e-buses availing the subsidy, with an assurance that it would hire the buses. As buying them outright is quite expensive, the TSRTC wants to hire them once the private operators procure them.

The corporation has already called tenders for operation of the e-buses on its behalf. As per the tender notice, the selected operators would provide e-buses with driver, insurance and maintenance. The TSRTC would collect fare and pay the operator at a price mutually agreed on kilometre basis. The corporation would select private operators through tenders for operating e-buses. The corporation was looking for companies with a turnover of Rs 10 crore. The bids would be opened on February 16, according to sources.