AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on September 26, approved the proposal to buy 300 CNG buses for its Bus Rapid Transit system (BRTS). The AMC which has been promoting green buses for a long time has decided to purchase such large quantity of buses in wake of the higher traffic fines coming into force on people.
Amul Bhatt, Committee Chairman, Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services said, “Electric buses would take time and to meet the increase in passenger rush for AMTS, the AMC has decided to get CNG.” A senior official said that due to the imposed traffic fines under new Motor Vehicles Amendment Act the number of passengers using AMTS has rapidly increased from a previous ridership graph of 5.5 lakh passengers to six lakh passengers mark.
Officials of AMTS said currently, it has 700 buses in its fleet and want to increase the fleet size looking at the increased number of passenger now relying on it for their daily commute. Top AMC officials said that ever since the BRTS launch in 2009, this is the first time the number of people using public transport crossed the 8.5 lakh mark in the city.