Even though the State Government is planning to introduce electric vehicles as public transport and city buses in the cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, and Puri, experts feel it won’t help reduce air pollution in a big way.
Citing an example they said in capital city Bhubaneswar, where the residents mostly use personal vehicles, the introduction of e-vehicles as public transport cannot reduce the air pollution significantly.
They believe that until the residents in Bhubaneswar change their lifestyle and use public transport more often, the e-vehicles are not going making any difference. Also, more canopy-based green coverage and city sponges in the capital city would change things for good.
A city planner said, “Everything depends on the number of people in the city using public transport. If people don’t change their lifestyles, the idea to use electric vehicles as public transport would not make any sense. Because what has been observed in the city, people are not using the city bus service-‘Mo Bus’ as a preferred option of public transport.”
But they are going for ‘whatever is available’ thing while commuting in the city. Hence, they depend on auto-rickshaws or cabs mostly. Limited number of city busses also influence their decision, he added.
It will be not a utopian idea, to think electric vehicle will reduce the pollution in Bhubaneswar. Hundreds of ‘Mo Bus’ are being run by the CRUT in Bhubaneswar. Of them, the Government would be able to add 30 to 40 electric buses into the fleet, he said.