In a move to switch to clean public transport, the Tamil Nadu Government is working on an initiative to introduce 500 electric buses in cities such as Chennai, Madurai as well as Coimbatore. According to the state’s transport minister, M R Vijayabhaskar, the introduction of these electric buses will be part of the first phase and that the current Government of K Palaniswami is the first one to sign an agreement with the C-40 Cities Bus Declaration for the introduction of battery-operated buses in the public transport corporations.
He further added that the Government is currently working towards introducing 2,000 electric busses along with 12,000 BS-6 compliant buses in the state. Government’s had signed an agreement with the C-40 Cities Clean Bus Declaration team in 2018 with the aim of reducing carbon emissions with the help of operating electric buses.
To a query about Madras High Court raising queries on why the helmet rule was not enforced in the State, he said it has been made mandatory and added that wearing of helmets was followed in Chennai, while it was less in rural areas. He said that the Government has been holding inspections and fined several lakhs of people who had violated the rule. Vijayabhaskar, after inspecting school buses to find out whether they were fit to run, said of the 32,576 school buses, 1,009 have been found unfit. The respective schools have been directed to operate the buses after addressing those issues, he said.
On issuing free passes to school and college students, he said in the last academic year free passes were issued to
20.55 lakh students. “Tenders have been floated to issue free passes to a total of 24.20 lakh students”, he said.
