Its been a decade to see the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation take control over the state buses in Nagpur since it started in 2007. Now, we see the Nagpur Municipal Corporation launching its five e-buses exclusively for the women commuters. After Pune, it was Mumbai which launched the buses on 9th September and then Nagpur emerged as the third city in the state to have the same.
It was mayor Nanda Jichkar who has launched the five women-only electric buses, which are going to operate on five different routes in the city. These include the Sitabuldi-YCCE College, Sitabuldi-Koradi, Sitabuldi-Defence, Sitabuldi-Pipla Fata and Sitabuldi-Butibori MIDC. All these e-buses will start plying to their said destinations via district collectorate. They are going to make around 75 trips from 7 am to 10 pm and would be covering around 951km on a daily basis. The fares will remain the same as those on diesel buses.
It was Nitin Gadkari the Union transport minister, who flagged off the buses. He was supposed to visit Delhi but then canceled it on the last moment to inaugurate the e-buses. The Transport committee chairman Bunty Kukde is the man behind bringing the buses for the ladies. Since he wanted to make the public transport more attractive and thus giving the women the option for commuting. Earlier the NMC had planned to procure diesel buses for the ladies, but it did not work. These buses have the following features:
- These can run up to 200km on a single stretch
- It can carry 31 passengers + 1 driver; 30 standing
- The bases will have CCTV cameras to prevent crime
- It has Panic buttons, Mobile charging points on the window seats
- Public announcement system
- Automatic doors and so on
