Green fuel to power entire city public vehicle fleet by 2030

Kolkata: The city’s entire public transport will run on clean fuel — electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) — by 2030, said state’s transport minister Firhad Hakim on Wednesday. By public transport, he meant the bus fleet — both private and state transport undertakings (STUs), taxis and autos. This is certainly an ambitious departure from his earlier stance, when he set a 2030 target for the entire STU fleet to be EV only.
Hakim was speaking at a panel discussion on accelerating electric mobility with green jobs and gender parity organised by Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. While detailing the success story of e-vehicles in public transport, Hakim said, “100 electric buses are plying in the city. STUs will be acquiring 1,000 more e-buses shortly, besides the only surviving tram network which has been operational since 1880. Also, 300 STU diesel buses are being converted into dedicated CNG buses.”
The possibility of CNG supply through a pipeline has gained momentum after intervention of the National Green Tribunal. “We will also convert the entire fleet of private buses to dedicated CNG buses in a phased manner.”