In September last year, Rosy Ignatius, 63, a fisherwoman who goes door to door with her basket to sell fish, stood up in a crowd at a public meeting and blessed the previous Transport Minister Antony Raju for introducing electric buses in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital city. She had been spending around ₹70 on transportation earlier and had to change three buses to get to her home at Veli after selling fish stocks in the city. The circular route introduced in the city connecting unserved remote locations within the city limits was a blessing for her. Now, she says, she spends only ₹30. “Saving ₹1,200 per month is almost equal to getting a welfare pension from the State government,” she says.
In August 2022, the corporation, under the e-mobility component of the Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Limited (SCTL), introduced electric buses in the city, replacing about 50% of the diesel-run buses in phases in the city limits as part of a Central and State governments-funded project. The city is the first in the State to get an e-bus service. According to the SCTL, about half the e-buses served people in unserved or underserved locations within Thiruvananthapuram, where people were largely relying on autorickshaws, two-wheelers, and cabs for transportation.
In mid-January this year, current Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar announced that electric buses would be replaced with fossil fuel-powered ones. The reason he cited was that people used them more than diesel buses on routes both were running, causing a financial loss to the utility since the fares on e-buses were lower. He added that e-buses required a huge investment. However, he had to retract his words after the political leadership snubbed him saying the e-buses were introduced as part of the green city initiative of the State government with the support of the Centre.
