Jammu: One hundred premium e-buses will hit the Jammu roads in a phased manner possibly from September.
The roads include Jammu City, and inter – city-district routes like, R S Pura, Akhnoor (Jammu District), Katra (Reasi District), Kathua and Udhampur roads.
Although the exact date is yet to be decided by the government, the process to operationalize 200 e-buses i.e., 100 each e-buses for Jammu as well as Srinagar has been initiated with trial-run under the Jammu Smart City Project and Srinagar Smart City Project.
“For these 200-premium e-buses roughly around Rs 800 crore would cost for 12 years. The payment shall be made to Tata Motors on KM basis under which Tata will procure, operate and maintain all the buses,” General Manager Finance, Jammu Smart City and Nodal Officer, e-Buses Project Jammu-Srinagar, Ashish Anand told Greater Kashmir.
Of these 100 e-buses, Anand said that they have two types of e-buses that would ply within Jammu City routes, and inter-city-district routes.
“Atleast 75 e-buses would plly within Jammu City routes. These buses would be having the sitting capacity of 23 passengers, and equal numbers of standing capacity under international standards of loading capacity that fulfills parameters as per Urban Bus Specification (UBS),” he said.
These 75 buses will ply within Jammu City i.e., Jammu Bus Stand, Railway Station, Janipur, etc routes especially on the routes where demand of public transportation is more required.
He further stated that 25 e-buses have a sitting capacity of 33 passengers and sufficient hand grabs for standing passengers. These hi-tech and premium and emission free e-buses would ply on RS Pura, Akhnoor, Katra, Udhampur, and Kathua routes.
The fare of these e-buses is yet to be finalised. However, the fair would be reasonable and affordable, the official added. The tickets for these e-buses can be booked from mobile application “Chalo Mobility” through online mode under National Common Mobility Card (NCMC). Meanwhile, the card (NCMC) that would be issued by the banks can be used across the country in metros in Delhi, and best buses and it would be a cashless transaction.
The official informed that these e-buses would be equipped with five CCTVs in each e-bus to monitor inside and outside (boarding, de-boarding, front, rear views) and the control panel would be handled by the driver of the respective e-buses.
“Five CCTVs in each e-bus, besides, the safety features include a panic button that enables the passengers to press it in case of any kind of health, crime or other emergency situations/unpleasant situations to provide a sense of security to the passengers,” the official said.
The official further added that the panic buttons and CCTVs system in the e-buses will be linked with the Integrated Command and Control Centre of Jammu (ICCCJ) Smart City to monitor health issues, eve-teasing, or other unpleasant incidents, and immediately respond to them.