Chennai first Indian city to join C40 cities

CHENNAI: On March 28 Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami signed an agreement with C40 Cities, declaring the state’s commitment to phasing in zero-emission public transport vehicles and become the first Indian city to join the C40 cities initiative to electrify its bus transportation system.

C40 Cities is a collection of 90 of the world’s greatest metropolises that are seeking to limit greenhouse gas emissions from goods and services.

More than 25 cities across the world are now part of the C40 Bus Declaration Act, a 2015 initiative from C40 cities to combat climate change.

According to Tamil Nadu officials, the agreement will help them procure electrical buses at inexpensive rates than standard buses and create the infrastructure to perform them.  “The price of an electric bus used to be Rs 2 crore eight months ago; now it has dropped to Rs 1 crore. We hope it’s going to come down further when the applied sciences are developed international.”

C40 will also help Chennai prepare a road map to achieve 100 per cent electrification of its public bus transportation system by providing it with resources to aid in decision making, technology and to plan the way forward, the official added.

Earlier, State transport minister M R Vijayabaskar visted an e-bus fair organized by automobile manufactures at New Delhi and explored the possibilities of feasibly procuring and operating them.

Manufactures worked on two models and state has expressed an interest in a model in which battery gets recharged itself after every 30km to 35km for three–five minutes and second model will be equipped with battery-swapping technology. Officials said that first type of model will suit their need and they can add 200 buses to the MTC fleet.