The much-awaited inaugural run of inter-city service of electric bus in the State finally happened on Monday as the prototype of the zero emission bus that was procured recently from a Hyderabad-based manufacturer arrived around 10 a.m. at Mysuru from Bengaluru.
KSRTC officials greeted the passengers who arrived in the bus, at the mofussil bus-stand in the city.
Unlike the operations to Mysuru from Bengaluru that originate from the Satellite Bus-Stand on Mysore Road in Bengaluru, the electric bus started its journey from the Majestic Bus-Stand with a brief stopover at the Satellite Bus-Stand for picking waiting passengers, carrying about 35 commuters. The fare to Mysuru from Majestic is ₹320 per passenger while it is ₹ 300 per passenger from the Satellite Bus-Stand.
Officials said the bus can run for over 300 km with a single charge. This is the trial run of the electric bus services and the KSRTC has plans to introduce more such buses on routes other than Bengaluru and Mysuru in the days ahead.
KSRTC received the prototype of the electric bus under the FAME-2 scheme on December 31. It has plans to induct 50 electric buses, and deploy them on various routes, including Madikeri, Shivamogga, Davanagere and other key cities. The electric bus has been named as ‘EV - Power Plus’.
The Hyderabad-based company will be operating the buses as per the contract it has entered into with the KSRTC. The company will operate and maintain buses for a certain number of years. The KSRTC will be paying the company on kilometre basis. The total number of seats in each bus is 47.
KSRTC operates the maximum number of Airavatha and Club Class services in the Bengaluru-Mysuru sector. Keeping this in mind, the KSRTC chose this sector for the launch of the first-ever electric inter-city service.
Madikeri-Mysuru-Bengaluru is another route that is being considered for this service. The relevant infrastructure for supporting the operation is readied both in Bengaluru and Mysuru.
Besides a charging station at the mofussil bus-stand here, a station has also come up at Bannimantap bus depot here. After getting the bus charged from Bengaluru, the bus was again fully charged at the depot.
In future, more EV charging stations will come up once the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway becomes fully ready for the traffic between the two cities.
