Ludhiana Smart City Limited mulls idea to launch electric buses in city for reducing pollution levels

Ludhiana, September 7, 2016: In order to find suitable solutions to the higher pollution levels of the industrial town the Ludhiana Smart City Limited (LSCL) is now mulling the idea to launch the electric buses as an alternative to the diesel run buses .
A Pune based company has also submitted its proposal to launch electric buses in the smart city under smart city mission. The LSCL would now prepare a proposal to be put up in front of board of directors for approval.
The officials claimed that the industrial town is defamed due to higher pollution levels and replacement of the diesel run buses with such electric buses would be a good option. Moreover for these buses GOI gives 70 to 75 percent funding apart from funds for the smart city mission therefore these buses would not put much burden on LSCL.
Recently, electric bus service has been launched in Delhi on trial basis for six months and even there also pollution is a major issue. A private company KPIT Technologies Limited has come forward for this project and this is the same company that has provided buses in Delhi.
While giving the information about electric buses the Head of Government Relations with KPIT Technologies Limited Sapna Soni told that electric buses can be a perfect solution to the pollution problem of Ludhiana as replacement of one diesel bus with electric bus has an annual impact of planting 2400 trees and diesel worth Rs 1 million saving. She further told that these would be fully air conditioned buses with vehicle tracking systems, wi-fi, entertainment surveillance with CCTV cameras and panic alarms for the safety of female passengers.
The CEO of LSCL-cum-MC Commissioner, Ghanshyam Thori informed that in a recent meeting at Chandigarh the additional chief secretary has given its consent to keep the electric buses under smart city mission and am amount worth Rs.10 crores for the same. He told that now they would get a proposal prepared for this project and once it would get approval they would be launching 10 such buses in the city in the first phase.
specifications of E-Bus included Automatic Vehicle Location/GPS/GPRS; Passenger Information System; Wi-Fi facility for onboard passengers; Emergency Voice Calling; ETM Interface; Top Speed 70 kmph and Vehicle Health Monitoring and Diagnostics.