A zero-emission airport electric bus, popular as ‘TSRTC Pushpak’, was gutted in a fire after it developed a fault while it was parked at the Cantonment bus depot for charging, here on Tuesday.
No person was injured in the incident.
The exclusive luxury airport liner runs between Jubilee Bus Station at Secunderabad and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad route. Once fully charged, the vehicle runs for upto 250 kms.
The fire incident, as reported by officials, took place around 2.05 p.m. when it was parked in the charging bay inside the depot. The 12-metre-long air-conditioned bus soon turned to charred remains, even as two fire tenders from Disaster Response & Fire Services continued to fight plumes of fire and smoke for nearly half an hour.
According to Telangana State Road Transport Corporation officials, the bus was under a hire-service agreement. Costing about ₹ 2 crore, the electric bus was not owned by TSRTC, but only managed. Causes of the incident and further investigations are also by an external agency.
Although it was pointed that a short circuit in the electric distribution box may have caused the fire, officials said a committee of officials from Olectra Greentech Limited, the bus manufacturer, have already visited the incident scene and have taken up investigation.
