Trolley buses in city may remain a pipe dream: TMT officials

Thane: The Thane Municipal Transport’s (TMT) plans to add 10 stretch trolley buses to its fleet was thrown out of gear after it received too few responses from bidders for various infrastructure projects needed to accommodate these vehicles.

Articulated buses or stretch trolley buses are two mid-size vehicles joined together by a vestibule. These buses have double the carrying capacity compared to regular buses but they require wider roads to maneuver and currently Thane doesn’t have such infrastructure. The buses were to arrive under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.

Sources said there have been no bidders for the buses too. “ We are not getting the buses. Not enough companies manufacture such buses in the state and it would be very difficult to maintain and operate them,” said a senior TMT official.

Devidas Tekale, TMT manager, too, confirmed that the buses will not arrive anytime soon. “There is no response to the tenders but the other buses should arrive as scheduled,” he said. Of the 220 buses, 140 will be non-AC buses; 30 premium AC buses, running on diesel, and 50 non-AC midi buses.