Metro drained of battery-run bus plan

Metro drained of battery-run bus plan
AKANKSHA MEHROTRA
DC | BENGALUR


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The Transport department has turned down a request from Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited to introduce battery-operated feeder buses for Namma Metro.
The big “no” from Transport department Secretary Shankarlinge Gowda is a blow to BMRCL’s plan to keep its carbon footprint low and has ruffled feathers at the corporation.

Mr Gowda told this newspaper that he had to turn down the request because “the technology is not available in the country”. He said, however, “We will definitely provide feeder buses for the Metro rail, but these

will be some 50 mini-buses for the first stage of the project". The buses will run on diesel Metro officials put up a brave face. BMRCL's GM (Finance) U.A. Vasanth Rao said battery-operated buses was only an idea that Namma Metro had tossed around a this stage. "We have to run the project in collaboration with BMTC, and we are also getting advice from the public at large. We want to have battery-run buses but we don’t know if they can carry a load of 25 passengers at a time over distances of 4-5 km. We prefer a battery-run fleet, but things are yet to be finalised”, he said.