The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transports (BEST) held a pre-bid meeting on Wednesday to convert its CNG-run buses to ones run by electricity. This conversion, the authorities said, would cut costs as well as have a green-advantage.
One of the oldest transport bodies in the city, the BEST has been struggling to keep itself afloat for the past six years as a result of increasing maintenance and running costs as well as decreasing passenger revenue. But the BEST has decided to utilise the Rs 10 crore allotted to them by their parent organisation, the BMC, for going green with electric buses this year. “Witnessing an overall positive response during the pre-bid meeting we have decided to float the tenders for converting our present non-air-conditioned bus that run on CNG to start running on electricity,” said general manager Jagdish Patil.
The electric buses will run on lithium batteries that will need to be recharged, but the biggest advantage would be that once fully charged, they could run for 160 km at a stretch. “We will need to recharge the batteries but it will be financially more viable to us. Also, there will be less pollution and also these buses will not be as noisy as the current ones that run on CNG,” added Mr Patil.
It will now be up to the bidding process by which the undertaking will be able to gauge how many buses will be converted within the Rs 10 crore that have been allotted.
The BEST management had been under fire for not utilising the Rs 10 crore allotted to them by the BMC last year as a result of which the grant lapsed. “After it came to light that the BEST had not used the funds allotted to them last year, this step has purposely been taken as early as April this year,” said a senior BEST official.
