The Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir will have a strong fleet of two hundred (200) eco-friendly electronic buses by the end of April this year under the Smart City Project, official sources informed.
Both Jammu and Srinagar will have hundred (100) electronic buses each which will ply on the roads of these 2 capital cities. These 200 eco-friendly electronic buses will mostly be used for public transport both inter-district as well as intra-district public transportation, official sources informed.
“The talks for procurement of 200 eco-friendly electronic buses are in the final stages and these will be procured by the end of April or in the first week of May,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL)
The talks for procurement of these 200 buses have been going on with Tata Motors. The government has also identified the depot site for these electronic buses.
These electronic buses will be utilised for public transport covering all major areas/destinations of both Jammu and Srinagar districts i.e inter-district, they further said adding, “apart from this, these buses will also be used for intra-district public transport as a step forward towards eco-friendly environment besides providing connectivity to uncovered areas of Jammu and Srinagar”.
Once these electronic buses are put to use, the people of J&K will get a cheaper public transport system, sources said adding, many areas both in Jammu and Srinagar, which do not have public transport as of now, will also be connected to this eco-friendly transport facility.
The CEO, Rahul Yadav, yesterday inspected ongoing work at the depot site at Bhagwati Nagar, Jammu, and directed the concerned authorities to complete the work in a time bound manner.
Pertinently, the land at Jammu has been handed over to Tata Motors. The CEO directed that the work must be completed in a time bound manner as the G-20 summit is to be held here besides Amarnath Yatra is also coming up later this year.