India's first inter-city electric bus service between Mumbai and Pune launched on 2020-02-14, will operate twice everyday.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday launched India’s first inter-city electric bus service between Mumbai and Pune. The company associated with this service said that they are planning to extend these services in other parts of Maharashtra and adjoining states in the near future.
The 43-seater capacity luxury electric bus is capable to operate within a range of 300 kilometres on a single charge and would be operated twice daily between the two cities.
Manufactured by Mitra Mobility Solution, the bus will be operated by Prasanna Purple Mobility Solutions which said that the firm has around 1,300 electric buses in operation.
Speaking at the event Gadkari said from the past 4-5 years he has been making an all-out effort to see that electric buses run in large numbers on the highways of the country.
He also expressed confidence that various corporations, state government corporations and private operators might order some 10,000 electric buses this year and added that the government was planning to build e-(electric) highways to facilitate the smooth operation of these electric buses.
Gadkari, who is the Minister for Transport, Highways and MSMEs, had earlier invited private players to invest alongside the government in developing the proposed electric lane on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway which is set to be completed in the next three years.
He further said that investors serious about this proposal will have to invest Rs 1.03 lakh crore and will also receive support from the government in terms of policies.
This new expressway will cut down the travel time between India’s financial capital and the national capital to just 12-13 hours.
Under the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, the focus has shifted from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles.
Gadkari had earlier said that all buses in the country would be converted into electric within a span two years.
Last year, the union minister had said that the Centre will not force the automobile industry to switch to cleaner sources of commute adding that there was no need to ban petrol and diesel vehicles or make the switch to EVs mandatory.
