Mumbai: 26 more e-buses, but very few charging points in city for now

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the launch of the buses on Friday

Powerless? Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday flagged off 26 more electric buses with much fanfare, taking the total number of buses to 72 in the fleet. However, sources said with only two BEST depots having charging points and a few private ones in use, the fleet may end up being handicapped, hampering overall operations and limiting routes. BEST officials refuted the allegations.

The electric bus fleet includes midi and traditional-sized buses

The buses include midi ones with a seating capacity of 31 and 12 standees and traditional-sized ones with a seating capacity of nearly 60 passengers and standing capacity for 20.

The buses have been procured under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME)-II scheme of the Central government, which promotes the use of electric vehicles in the country to curb pollution. Under the scheme, BEST is to procure 300 electric buses by 2022.

A senior BEST committee member said that the practicalities of having more electric buses will be difficult to implement. Each of the buses can travel up to 200 km in a single charge. BEST has one charging station at Backbay depot, one at Dharavi depot and uses a few private ones.

"Both these depots are within the island city limits which means that the electric buses will be caged there and have limited operations and routes," he said. "The BEST Undertaking needs to prepare in a holistic manner to roll out the electric bus plan comprehensively," he said.

However, officials said that this is not the case. "The Department of Heavy Industries, along with buses, has also sanctioned 2,636 charging stations in 62 cities across 24 states and union territories. One of the highest numbers of charging stations, that is about 317, have been allotted to Maharashtra," a BEST official said.

BEST deputy public relations officer Manoj Varade said that more charging stations are being planned. "The new buses will be assigned to various depots which will get independent charging points as per the plan." Apart from BEST, 150 electric buses are for Pune, 100 each for Navi Mumbai and Nagpur, 50 for Nashik and 25 for Solapur.

46
No. of electric buses already in the city

72
Total no. of electric buses after the latest addition

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