Success of electric buses touches new heights, 2.14L passengers avail services in 18 months

Kolkata: The success of electric buses in New Town is going up by leaps and bounds with more than 2.14 lakh passengers availing the services in the past 18 months.

Three electric buses were introduced in the township on May 1, 2018. Debashis Sen, chairman of the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) had flagged them off at a function. It may be mentioned that New Town is the first township in the state to have introduced electric buses.

It may be mentioned that both in India and abroad, special drives have been taken to introduce electric vehicles replacing the fuel-driven ones to reduce environmental pollution.

The state Transport department has introduced 80 buses that are plying in different routes in Kolkata.

The buses that ply in New Town are air-conditioned with a sitting capacity of 32 passengers. Standing is not allowed. The fare is Rs 10 and the unique feature is that there are no conductors and drivers collect the fare and issue tickets.

The route number 1 starts from Pride Hotel and comes back to Pride Hotel via NBCC. The major stops are Pride Hotel, Axis Mall, Balaka More, Jal Vayu Tower, Uniworld City, Shapoorji, Karigori Bhavan, Narkel Bagan and New Town.

The Route number 2 is Pride Hotel via Narkel Bagan and Route number 3 is Pride Hotel via Eco Space. Till date 2,14,571 passengers have commuted in the electric buses in New Town.