7,682 new buses to replace aged this fiscal
CHENNAI: The State Transport Department on Friday announced plans to procure 7,682 new buses in the current fiscal to replace its ageing fleet.
An official release said of its 20,260-odd buses, 10,582 (52.73%) are aged and need to be replaced. Around 1.75 crore commuters board these buses daily, including 51.47 lakh women, who travel free of cost. Due to the non-procurement of new buses during the COVID-19 period owing to financial constraints, the average age of buses with State transport undertakings has touched 9.13 years as of March 31, 2023.
“Despite its financial constraints, the State government sanctioned the procurement of 1,000 new buses in 2022-23, another 1,000 buses in 2023-24, 3,000 buses in 2024-25 and 16 buses under the Special Area Development Programme. The STUs would get 2,666 buses under the German funding agency KfW. Hence a total of 7,682 new buses would be introduced,” it said.
Of the proposed new buses, 652 were already added to the fleet to replace the same number of aged buses, it said, adding the rest of the 7,030 buses would be procured by the end of 2024-25.
In Chennai, it said 1,000 electric buses would be operated through the gross cost contract model and in the first phase, 500 e-buses would be operated soon.
Apart from procuring new buses, steps have been taken to refurbish the bus body of 1,500 buses in 2022-23 and 2023-24. “As many as 839 refurbished buses have already started operating,” it said, adding the department is committed to avoiding bus breakdowns and accidents to ensure the safety of the passengers.