The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is setting up a charging station at Dharavi depot for its new fleet of electric buses. It now has charging stations at Backbay and Colaba depots. The BEST will be inducting 10 electric buses in the next few days.
BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde said the buses should be operational by the month-end. With a charging station at Dharavi, officials said they would be in a position to operate the buses on routes in the suburbs as well.
First batch of e-buses
These would be the first batch of the 80 electric buses that the BEST has procured with the help of subsidies under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme of the Centre. The buses have been procured under a wet lease model. The contractor will own and maintain the buses and provide drivers. Mr. Bagde said plans are on to induct 2,250 buses into the fleet. He said, “We have floated tenders for 500 mini AC buses, 500 midi AC buses, 250 electric midi AC buses. We have also sent a proposal to procure 1,000 electric buses in two batches under FAME 2. Once the work orders are issued, we will have a clearer picture about timelines.”
The BEST has appointed contractors for the 400 AC mini buses, which are expected to arrive by the year-end. At present, the BEST has only six electric buses in its fleet of 3,200 buses. Under the revival plan, the administration plans to increase its fleet size to 6,000 buses by procuring buses on wet lease.
