Faced with increasing operation and maintenance expenses, private bus operators in Kerala are gearing up to roll out 20 electric buses, 10 each in Ernakulam and Malappuram.
“We hope to get them delivered in January from a Bengaluru-based firm. It is part of a pilot project to upgrade the approximately 10,000 private buses in the State as e-buses in a phased manner. Barring a few which operate on CNG, most existing buses run on diesel, both of which entail expense to the tune of approximately ₹5,000 a day per bus on fuel alone,” said T. Gopinathan, general secretary, Kerala Private Bus Operators’ Organisation.
The energy expenditure of approximately ₹30 per km can be brought down to ₹7 per km once the air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned 38-seater e-buses are introduced. “The operation of 10 buses in Ernakulam and Malappuram will help assess their operational expense on congested city routes and in not so congested areas. We will have to see how much distance the nine-metre-long buses with a 250-km range can operate in the two districts. Each bus operator, in whose name the bus will be registered, will have to pay daily rent to the firm which will provide the buses. This is seen as a more viable option than obtaining loan to invest heavily in capital-intensive buses that cost approximately ₹1 crore a piece,” he added.
Bus operators will have to deploy their crew who will be trained by the firm that supplies the buses, it is learnt.
Operators began to look out for e-buses since the number of private buses in the State fell from around 35,000 two decades ago to less than 10,000, thanks to the increase in operation and maintenance costs, hefty students’ concession, KSRTC taking over long-distance services, and the preference for private vehicles, said sources in the Motor Vehicles department. Being capital-intensive, e-buses are a long-term solution, while others could operate after retrofitting CNG kits in their buses as a short-term measure.
The e-buses will in all likelihood be hypothecated to a bank suggested by the supplier firm and will take over permits of the existing fleet of private buses. Operators will thus come to own the buses once they clear their dues, while paying a fixed daily rent to the firm.
