Watch: Gearing up for electric public transport: Tamil Nadu’s case

Tamil Nadu gears up for electric buses: Climate Economy

| Video Credit:
The Hindu

As has been pointed out in earlier episodes of this show, the transport sector is also the second largest contributor to carbon emissions in India. Several States nationwide, have been attempting to decarbonise it with multipronged strategies – one of them is to reduce public transport’s carbon footprint.

Come April, Chennai’s residents would be introduced to a new fleet of 500 electric buses that the State has procured for its public transport corporation – MTC Chennai Ltd. This would make Tamil Nadu the fifth State after Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra and Delhi, to deploy e-buses as part of the State’s transport sector decarbonisation efforts.

These 500 buses are the first of a three-phased induction of a total 1300 into the city’s public transport system by the end of the year.

An interesting aspect of this process has been the procurement and operation and maintenance of these buses – they have been procured at what is called the gross cost contract model, which allows the MTC to pay the supplier and the operator a per kilometre rate for running the buses.

We spoke to Tamil Nadu’s Additional Chief Secretary K. Phanindra Reddy to understand why the State has ventured into this model, the government’s future plans on integrating e-buses into other public transport units, the challenges to standardising charging, battery infrastructure and more.

Reporting: T. Ramakrishnan

Videography: S. Shiva Raj, Thamodharan B.

Editing: Shibu Narayan