RTC to go green: Electric, CNG buses set to run on roads soon

fuel was initiated in the year 2005, but it had to be discontinued due to issues in the supply. Those issues seem to have been resolved, and use of biodiesel is being resumed.

At present biodiesel used at 35 bus depots. It is planned that usage will be extended to 50 depots in the near future.

The RTC in its report has said that the use of the biodiesel will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 8,885 tonnes per annum.

The RTC had also introduced the use of CNG buses, for the first time in south India, in 2011. The corporation had then planned to procure 250 CNG buses for Hyderabad; but procurement had to be limited to 134 buses, due to inadequate supply of CNG by the Bhagyanagar Gas Company.

The RTC now says that it has entered into an agreement with Bhagyanagar Gas, and has been assured of uninterrupted supply of CNG to power 300 buses in Hyderabad.

The corporation has requested the TS Pollution Control Board to provide financial aid in the form of a soft loan, for the procurement of 56 new CNG buses, and for the conversion of 26 diesel buses into CNG buses.

Though the operation of CNG buses is not financially viable as compared to the operation of highspeed diesel oil buses, the corporation is willing to bear an additional cost of `25.39 lakh in the form of capital and operational costs, as part of its corporate social responsibility, to reduce air pollution. They say that they will introduce CNG buses without any financial assistance from the state government.

In its report, the RTC says that based on as assumption that each vehicle runs for an average of 250 km, the utilisation of 134 CNG buses will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 2111 tonnes per annum.