Jaipur: Air-conditioned electric buses are all set to run on Jaipur roads by mid-April. Officials of Jaipur City Transport Services Limited (JCTSL) said the three-day trial run on city roads was successful, and they expect delivery of 40 to 50 buses within the next 45 days.“Although the final report from the manufacturers to the Union govt is still awaited, we have been informed that the trial runs were successful and that Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) is trying to complete the initial procurements by mid-April,” Narayan Singh, MD of JCTSL, told TOI.It was in the 2023 state budget that then CM Ashok Gehlot first announced the procurement of e-buses for different cities of Rajasthan and proposed to merge five city transport corporations into Rajasthan City Transport Corporation. For the next two years the state govt failed to initiate the procurement process, primarily due to lack of funds. JCTSL later signed an MoU with CESL, a subsidiary under the Union Ministry to Power, to procure e-buses of two different sizes for Jaipur and five other cities in Rajasthan under the Pradhan Mantri E-bus Sewa Scheme. All 150 buses of the first consignments were meant for Jaipur. While 40 to 50 out of the 150 buses are to be dispatched by mid-April, the rest would arrive within next three months, officials said.Meanwhile, JCTSL is upgrading all its depots to handle e-buses and has identified land for new depots.“For the time being, our depots in Todi Mod (Vidhyadhar Nagar) and in Bagrana (Agra Road) are equipped with infrastructure for e-buses. We will distribute the first set of 40 to 50 e-buses between these two depots,” an official said. The corporation is also increasing the number of bus stops across the city from 193 to 293 and would rationalise its routes as per the recommendations in the Comprehensive Mobility Plan for Jaipur.
