With a target to further expand the Mo Bus service, the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) is all set to roll out electric buses by the end of January next.
The CRUT, which celebrated its second anniversary on Thursday, plans to run 25 electric buses in the first phase and another 25 in the month of March. The electric buses would run under the Mo Bus scheme in the Twin City of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack and Puri, officials said.
Earlier in November, the CRUT had carried out a demo run of the e-buses on different routes of Bhubaneswar.The e-buses feature modern facilities like AC, music system and CCTV cameras and USB charging points installed in every seat to facilitate passengers with a safe and joyous ride.
The buses will run without diesel or petrol and passengers will experience a noise-free journey. Drivers of the buses will not have to change gears as the vehicles will run automatically with three switches-reverse, neutral and drive.
As part of the expansion projects, the CRUT would also set up two modern bus depots at Patia and Patrapada soon. The two projects would cost approximately Rs 17 crore, said an official.
While the Covid-19 lockdown affected the Mo Bus service badly, currently around 26,000 passengers are travelling in the buses daily. So far, total 109 buses were plying on 17 routes.
