Starting March 24, you can travel on electric buses from Bengaluru to five cities in southern Karnataka. And in April, a new city will be added to the route.
On Monday, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) inducted 25 air-conditioned e-buses called EV Power Plus. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai flagged them off at the Vidhana Soudha. The KSRTC will get 25 more such buses by March-end. The funding has come from the union government's FAME 2 scheme.
The first EV Power Plus bus was launched in January on a pilot basis and does one daily round trip between Bengaluru and Mysuru.
The state bus operator procured the electric buses from Olectra Greentech Ltd on a wet lease. The contractor maintains the bus and pays the driver. Only the conductor is from the KSRTC.
The introduction of EV Power Plus buses is part of KSRTC's pivot to green and economical buses. The state-run transporter has been making losses because of high diesel prices and stiff competition from private operators.
The KSRTC plans to induct 350 electric buses in the coming months. Some of them will ply to Tumakuru and other cities located within 100 km of Bengaluru.
KSRTC Managing Director V Anbukumar said that the electric bus service to Mysuru had been "a great success" and was more profitable than diesel buses. "A diesel bus returns a profit of Rs 38/km and a luxury bus Rs 60-65/km, but an e-bus earns Rs 80-85/km," he told DH.
The per-kilometre cost of running an electric bus is about Rs 53, said N K Basavaraju, Chief Mechanical Engineer, KSRTC.
KSRTC will run 20 EV Power Plus electric buses from Bengaluru to Mysuru, Virajpet and Madikeri, and 30 to Chikkamagaluru, Davangere and Shivamogga.