Bengaluru’s e-bus plan falters without adequate charging stations

The BMTC’s effort to induct 90 medium-sized (midi) electric buses has been stalling due to delays in setting up the charging infrastructure.

Going by their initial plan, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) should have deployed a major portion of the 90 electric buses by December end. They bought the buses with funding from the Bengaluru Smart City Limited.

Officials had identified three depots — Kengeri, KR Puram, and Yeshwantpur — as well as the routes recognised to aid the optimum utilisation of the buses. But they could run only 30 buses as lack of charging infrastructure delayed the deployment. The buses have been kept on standby at the Kengeri depot.