At Rs 2.5 crore, eco-friendly buses are not exactly pocket-friendly

BENGALURU: Eco-friendly hybrid buses remain a distant dream for Bengaluru. Reason: They are priced high and the government cannot afford it.
Hybrid buses run on diesel-cumelectric motors and are priced at `2.5 crore each. Switching between diesel and electric motor, these buses are less polluting and more fuel-efficient.

It is claimed that carbon dioxide emissions from these buses are 30% lower than the conventional buses that run solely on internal combustion diesel engines. The hybrid, it is also claimed, consumes 40% less fuel. “The government is purchasing 600 buses for all the four corporations. BMTC will get 150 buses. There will be no new Volvos, air conditioned buses or the 30 hybrid buses that were planned earlier be cause of their high price,“ BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Kaur said.

Just when the authorities and citizens' groups are trying to encourage car-owning citizens to use public transport -in order to relieve congestion and pollution on city roads -the rollback could be a dampener.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his `Vision Bengaluru' has hoped to wean people towards public transport and promised to increase the city's bus fleet by 50%.

Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy said: “We want to introduce hybrid buses and air-conditioned buses but we are not getting any subsidy from the central government.We have decided not to purchase.One hybrid bus costs anywhere between `1.5 crore to `2.5 crore.“

The minister pointed out that the corporation incurred loss of `15.38 crore in 2013-14 and `12.27 crore in 2014-15, primarily due to Volvo buses. As salaries of workers too in creased, there is a cash crunch, he said. At present, the corporation operates 654 Volvo buses on 90 routes in the city while an additional 87 Volvos ply to the Kempegowda International Airport.

On an average, 23 passengers travel in each Volvo as against its seating capacity of 40.

C Nagaraju, General Secretary of the Karnataka State Road Transport Workers Union, said that around 30,000 IT professionals travel in 278 Volvo buses to Electronic City , ITPB, Whitefield and Kadugodi and 4,000 passengers travel to KIA in 87 buses.

IT corridors, Nagaraju pointed out, are the most profitable routes for the corporation.