Modi flags off 100 new electric buses for city
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Bhubaneswar: In a move towards a modern, eco-friendly mobility network, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off 100 new electric buses under the Capital Region Urban Transport (Crut).
The PM inaugurated the new buses during his visit to the city to mark one-year anniversary of the BJP govt in Odisha. The new additions increased the number of e-buses under Crut in the capital city to about 150.
The capital city is steadily improving infrastructure supporting EVs with the introduction of a new public charging station at Vani Vihar Square recently. Besides, the Crut has also been developing exclusive bus depots equipped with EV infrastructure.
With the new additions on Friday, Crut is likely to increase the number of routes covering more distant parts of the city as well as Cuttack and Puri. Besides the e-buses, Crut operates about 400 buses which run on conventional fuel.
"There is a growing demand for public buses in the city. Looking at the need and demand, we have strengthened our fleet. The new and upcoming addition to the fleet will predominantly be e-buses only," a Crut spokesperson said.
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He said the additions took the total number of buses under Crut to about 510. "There are 58 routes where Ama buses are plying now. We will be adding a few new routes with the new buses," added the spokesperson.
The Ama Bus (earlier called Mo Bus) services have gained immense popularity in quick time. From daily ridership of a few thousand in the initial days, it has gone up to 2.16 lakh in Bhubaneswar alone.
Looking at the demand, the state govt increased the fleet with new EV buses as well as routes covering more parts of the city. It also introduced Ama Bus service in Rourkela in 2023. It later expanded the service to cities like Berhampur and Sampalpur.
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Mukesh Ambani's wealth increased by 'only' Rs 305.03 billion rupees (US$ 3.81 billion) during the same period. This sudden prosperity could be explained only by Adani's close relation with Narendra Modi – which became obvious when Modi used Adani's chartered plane on his campaign trail across India in the run-up to the 2014 elections. On May 22, 2014, the day he was sworn in as prime minister, he flew to New Delhi from Ahmedabad in Adani's private aircraft, the Indian flag embossed on the aircraft to his right, and on his left, an embossed logo of the Adani Group – the duo was transitioning from the state to the national level. Today's situation is the legacy of these Gujarat years which saw the making of a new oligarch. Since then, the mutual dependence has further deepened. Both men need each other in a very classic manner: the politician offers protection to the crorepatti who pays for his expenditures – including election campaigns whose cost represented billions of dollars in 2014, 2019 and 2024. Whether Narendra Modi can help Gautam Adani to escape from the American investigations remains to be seen as easily as from the Indian ones. In diplomatic relations, there are wheels within wheels. This article draws from my latest book: Gujarat under Modi. The Blueprint of Today's India, Bangalore, Westland/Context, 2024. Christophe Jaffrelot is Senior Research Fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King's College London, Non resident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Chair of the British Association for South Asian Studies. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Advertisement
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