Rajkot civic body inducts 35 CNG buses in its city bus fleet, starts phasing out diesel buses
Along with RMTS, the city bus service, the RRL -- which is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the RMC -- also runs the BRTS (bus rapid transit system) in the city.
Rajkot MP Parshottam Rupala flags off new CNG buses of the RMC, on Thursday. Express photo With an aim to reduce air and noise pollution in Rajkot, the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Thursday kicked off the process of phasing out diesel buses, and replacing them with a CNG fleet.
Parshottam Rupala, the newly elected Rajkot MP, flagged off 35 new CNG buses at an event organised at Mahatma Gandhi Museum. These buses have been inducted into the fleet of the Rajkot Rajpath Limited (RRL), which runs Rajkot Mass Transport Service (RMTS). Along with RMTS, the city bus service, the RRL — which is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the RMC — also runs the BRTS (bus rapid transit system) in the city.
In a couple of weeks, 18 more CNG buses will be inducted in the RRL fleet, said officials. Another 48 will be subsequently delivered, taking the number of CNG buses to 100. The 52 buses — powered by the cleaner fuel CNG (compressed natural gas) and which are likely to be delivered over the next few days — will replace the entire lot of existing diesel-powered buses, said the officers. The fleet of CNG buses were flagged off in the presence of acting Rajkot Mayor Narendrasinh Jadeja, Rajya Sabha MP Ram Mokariya and other RMC office-bearers.
“We are expecting Shri Maruti Travels (SMT), Ahmedabad, a private vendor, to supply the remaining 32 CNG buses by the end of this month,” a civic officer told The Indian Express. The officer further indicated the phasing out of an equal number of diesel buses once the “the private agency delivers all the 52 CNG buses”.
At present, the RRL has a fleet of 52 diesel buses and 125 electric buses. Of the 125 electric buses, 65 are in operation. Of the 65 electric buses, 20 run on the BRTS corridor while 45 run on RMTS routes. Of the 52 diesel buses, 30 are standard buses and 22 midi buses.
While the seating capacity of the standard and the midi buses is 42 and 32, respectively, the seating capacity of e-buses ranges from 27 to 33.
The RRL has ordered 100 new CNG buses to expand its city bus operations. It already had 50 electric buses sanctioned by the Central government in 2019. The Centre sanctioned an additional 100 e-buses to the RMC in 2022 and of them 75 have already been delivered. The remaining 25 are also expected to be delivered in a few months. Once the remaining electric and CNG buses are delivered, the number of electric buses in RRL fleet will go up to 150. All together, the RRL will have a fleet of 250 buses.
The central government sanctioned an additional 100 e-buses to RMC under the PM Bus Service scheme in 2023. said officials. Once these are delivered, the RRL fleet size will further increase to 350 buses.
The RRL hired new buses under the gross cost model (GCM) under which the vendor gets a fixed amount per kilometre from the RRL while fare collection revenue goes to the RRL account.
The new buses will run under the scheme of CM Bus Service, where the state government makes viability gap funding (VGF) to keep operations costs within reach of civic bodies.
The new buses will reduce pollution with a marginal increase in the RRL’s operations cost, officials underlined.
A civic officer said the SMT will operate the CNG buses at the rate of Rs 45.90 per km.
The existing midi and standard buses, also operated by SMT, are running at the rate of Rs 39.99 and Rs 63.98 per km, respectively. The RMC is paying Rs 53.95 per km to PMI for the 50 buses contracted in 2019 and will pay around Rs47 for the 100 additional e-buses contracted in 2022.
According to an official release, while the private vendor will be responsible for the fuel, drivers, conductors, and maintenance, the state government will give Rs 18 per km VGF to RRL for running non-air conditioned CNG buses.
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