Electric buses will run in 18 cities including Lucknow, Ayodhya
To provide easy transportation facilities to the people living in 18 urban areas of the state, the government has decided to start operating AC electric buses. The Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Urban Development Department related to this. With this, the total number of e-buses operating in cities will increase to 1725.
These buses will also be operated by private operators on Gross Cost Contract (GCC) model. Operation of e-buses will also create employment opportunities for more than 45 thousand people.
Giving information about the cabinet decision taken on Wednesday, Urban Development Minister AK Sharma said that the network of comfortable and pollution-free city buses in the state is being expanded. Let us tell you that already 743 buses are being operated by the Municipal Transport Directorate in 15 municipal corporation cities. Out of these, 700 buses are also being operated on GCC model.
The minister said that the government has taken this decision keeping in mind the increasing urbanization in the state, transportation needs of the citizens and environmental protection. He informed that electric buses will be operated in a phased manner.
This will provide safe, accessible, air-conditioned and environment-friendly public transport facilities to the citizens. Besides this, air and noise pollution will also reduce and will help in reducing the carbon footprint of the state. He said that this ambitious scheme will create about 10,500 direct and 35,000 indirect employment opportunities.
E-buses will run in these cities
In the first phase, buses will operate in Lucknow, Agra, Ayodhya, Aligarh, Bareilly, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut, Moradabad, Prayagraj, Shahjahanpur, Saharanpur, Varanasi and Noida (including Jewar). Let us tell you that a proposal for operating a total of 1725 e-buses was prepared by the Urban Development Department, out of which 743 electric buses are already being operated.