Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapadi Palaniswami on Monday, 26th August 2019 flagged off the state’s first-ever Electric Air Condition Bus, named Green Bus, at Koyambedu, Chennai. In the first phase, the Green Buses will ply at A1 MTC route from Chennai Central to Thiruvanmiyur. Along with the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Education Minister Sengottaiyan, Tamil and Culture Minister Mafoi Pandiarajan, and transport officials traveled in the green bus Thiruvanmiyur to Koyambedu.
Manufactured by Ashok Leyland, this is the first of 525 buses the Tamil Nadu government plans to ply, with the objective of reducing air pollution, and also moving towards EV conversion of public vehicles. The project is implemented under Union Government’s FAME 2 (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) where indigenous development of manufacturing of Electric Vehicles is expected to get a major boost.
The real challenge of running Green Bus is its battery capacity. With a full charge the Green Bus can travel currently 50 Kilometres, and the charging is only available at Central Depot. Usage of sustainable renewable energy within the Green Bus unit can be one of the solution which can promote viable adoption of EV Buses in the country.
Tamil Nadu Government is expected to deploy Electric Green Busesbuses in major cities like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Erode, Tiruppur, Salem, Vellore, and Thanjavur. The cost of an EV Bus is almost 5-6 times higher than regular ICE vehicle currently run by the Transport department. With the cost of running becomes negligible compared to the fuel run buses, in the long term this cost can be covered.
