The Government of Uttar Pradesh has approved a plan to develop an electric bus depot at Runkata under the Agra smart city project.
Runakta is a small town on the outskirts of Agra. It is situated on the NH19, earlier NH2, popularly known as the Grand Trunk Road.
According to reports, the process for purchase of 100 battery-operated buses has been initiated; it has been proposed by the Agra- Mathura city transport service limited and development of the depot is likely to start by the end of this year.
According to RBL Sharma, the managing director of Agra-Mathura city transport, the plan to develop a modern electric bus depot at Runkata has been approved by the state government and the 6.67 acres of land on which the depot will be developed belongs to the Agra development authority; Registration process of the land will be completed in one month’s time.
The UP government has planned to operate 580 electric buses on contract basis in nine major cities including Agra, Mathura, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad and Saharanpur. Out of these, 100 buses will be operated in Agra and Mathura under the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ). The urban transport directorate has planned to start the operation of at least 10 buses in each city within the next three months.
As per reports, the electric buses will have a travelling range of 150 kilometres on a single charge, and a maximum speed of 75 kilometres per hour. The lithium-ion batteries of these buses will take less than 30 minutes to be completely charged.
