PUNE: The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) will contact BEST (Brihanmumbai electric supply and transport undertaking) in Mumbai in a bid to reach out the operators having electric double decker buses and negotiate with them on starting a limited number of buses in Pune.
Laxminarayan Mishra, the chairman and managing director of PMPML said that while they intended to contact BEST, finding an operator with a fleet of such buses was difficult.
“We can find operators of regular diesel-run double decker buses. However, when it comes to electric buses, it is difficult. We have been looking for some operators who can provide the service to us,” the senior official said.
In January this year, the PMPML had talks with a company and had inquired about the buses with them. “We have a plan under which these buses can be run on selected routes of the city on a pilot basis. However, once an operator is finalized, the bus needs to be approved by the ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India). It can take some more time before we see the buses in Pune. However, the PMPML is making honest attempts in this direction,” Mishra pointed out.
The state government has shown interest in running e-double decker buses, and BEST had already decided to add more buses to the fleet. The state government, under the Maharashtra clean air project, recently approved the procurement of 800 electric double decker buses for Mumbai.
Double decker buses were inducted in the fleet back in 1984. Back then, buses used to run under the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) and the PMPML was not formed.
According to sources, around 5-6 double decker buses used to ply on the Pune-Mumbai route. These buses were stopped in 1995 mainly because of high maintenance costs and accidents.
“Tentatively, we are expecting the buses to come by the later half of the year or early next year. We already have a decent fleet of regular e-buses which are doing well and plan to add more e-buses to stop the dependency on diesel,” another official added.
The PMPML said that by the year end, it plans to have a fleet of 500 e-buses. At present, it has a total of 356 e-buses in its fleet.
