Hyderabad: The TSRTC is finding it difficult to even operate 300 buses on CNG. The corporation operates 3,000 buses in the city of which 130 run on Compressed Natural Gas.
In 2015, transport minister P. Mahender Reddy told the Legislative Assembly had said 230 CNG buses would be introduced in Hyderabad during the year. The State Pollution Control Board wrote written to the RTC to have at least 10 per cent of its fleet running on CNG. There has been no new addition to the fleet of CNG buses by TSRTC in Hyderabad.
A senior TSRTC official said, “There is no proper plan on CNG buses in the city, as to how the induction or phasing out is to be done or where the money will come from. Each CNG bus would cost around Rs 30 lakh.”
He said if the PCB wanted the RTC to run more CNG buses, “it should pay us the amount.” He said the RTC could not afford them/
“There is no point converting the existing buses into CNG. Many of them are nearing 15 years after which they have to be operated in the districts where there is no availability of CNG,” he said.
If more CNG buses are to be operated, CNG connections should also be increased. As of now only Medchal, Cantonment and Jeedimetla depots have CNG facility. A senior official of TSPCB said that they would review the situation on August 5.
