In a bid to increase the adoption of electric vehicles for city transport, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has decided to phase out all diesel vehicles and bring more electric buses to its fleet.
When the plan is fully implemented, only electric and CNG buses will remain operational within the corporation’s limits. The agency recently introduced 180 new AC electric buses to its fleet.
Additionally, NMMC has pitched the idea of purchasing electric vehicles for its officials while 20 new spots have been identified as locations for charging points for residents. This comes as both Central and State Governments are aggressively pursuing electric vehicles to curb pollution in metro cities.
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Shirish Aradwad, General Manager, NMMT said, “Our aim is to develop an environment friendly fleet. Currently we have 540 buses, out of these 330 are either CNG or electric. Recently we received a batch of 180 electric buses of which 105 are King Long and 75 are Midibuses. We are scrapping diesel-run buses phase wise and not going to purchase any new such vehicles, so we will have only CNG and electric buses.”
“Officials who are using corporation-run vehicles will mandatorily have to use e-vehicles. There are still ifs and buts about e-vehicles among common citizens. If corporation officials take the initiative in this, it will definitely propagate the message among the masses,” an NMMC official said.
Meanwhile, the tendering process for e-charging stations at 20 spots has already concluded. Officials expect the construction work to commence as soon as the monsoon subsides. “Setting up of 20 e-charging stations is underway and we believe within couple of months we can have some of them functioning,” NMMC Commissioner, Abhijit Bangar said.
Also read - India's Largest Electric Vehicle Charging Station Inaugurated In Navi MumbaiNMMC
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