New Delhi: The heritage city of Mysuru has been chosen as one of the cities to implement the new policy of the NITI Aayog to change the face of country’s public transport by introducing electric vehicles.

Under the new policy, Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh had already begun tests for using electric vehicles for public transport.

Five cities, namely Bengaluru and Mysuru in Karnataka, Amaravati, Kakinada and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, have been selected for the implementation of the new policy. However, only one or two of them may be selected in the final round.

Among the cities being considered, Amaravati and Mysuru may be best suited for the proposal. Amaravati, a completely new city being built in the vicinity of Vijayawada, can be a city with electric public transport vehicles right from the start. Mysuru, on the other hand, is a relatively traffic-free city that has a reasonably well-implemented Intelligent Transit System for vehicle tracking, the NITI Aayog felt.

Electric buses may not be able to cope with the congestion in larger cities such as Bengaluru and Delhi, and need to be first introduced in cities with lesser traffic.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Centre has taken a giant step to introduce electric vehicles or e-vehicles throughout the country by 2032, replacing the petrol  and diesel vehicles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has initiated this policy which the NITI [National Institution for Transforming India] Aayog has taken up. A draft policy has already been drafted under the e-Vehicle plan and several points have been proposed under this policy. This 90-page report has already been accessed by the media.

Battery Centres

It is proposed that taxes and interest will be reduced on e-vehicles. The Aayog has recommended that on the lines of petrol and diesel bunks, battery centres should be opened and by 2018 itself such centres are likely to come up.

It has also been suggested to open battery charging centres in the existing petrol bunks to get the cars charged . This new policy is likely to bring tremendous changes in the local and globalised atmosphere, the NITI Aayog has suggested in the draft proposal.

KSRTC DC reacts

The KSRTC City Divisional Controller Dr. K. Ramamurthy, speaking to Star of Mysore said that in the budget proposal presented this year, the State Government had  earmarked Rs. 100 crore for the e-buses each costing Rs. 1 crore.

These buses, if introduced in Mysuru, would definitely help in bringing down noise, sound and air pollution largely.

“Though the investment on such vehicles (Volvo buses which the government plans to purchase) will be costly, in the long run it will be cheaper. However, the battery has to be replaced every two years,” he said and added “the KSRTC Mysuru division has no problem to introduce the vehicles, if the permission is given.”

DCP (Traffic) N. Rudramuni said this concept was good idea but he was still not aware of the plans to introduce the e-buses.

“It is good for the nation as the use of fossil fuel will come down. We will have to introduce charging stations in our bunks also and in the long run it will help in keeping the environment clean,” said S.K. Dinesh, Honorary President of Petroleum Dealers Association, Mysuru.