City gets 55 AC e-buses; deputy CM opens Perumbakkam depot
Udhayanidhi Stalin
flagged off 135 new low-floor electric buses, of which 55 are air-conditioned and 80 are deluxe, together worth 233 crore.
He also inaugurated the upgraded Perumbakkam electric bus depot built at 49.56 crore.
Coming a month after chief minister M K Stalin launched 120 new e-buses, this event marked the second phase of MTC's e-bus rollout under the Chennai City Partnership – Sustainable Urban Services Project (CCP-SUSP), supported by the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to reduce air pollution.
The new AC buses have a height-lowering feature (40cm to 25cm) to allow easier boarding for senior citizens, women, children, and people with disabilities, along with wider aisles (70cm instead of 65cm), same-level seating, and CCTV cameras for passenger safety.
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These 12-metre buses will be operated under a gross cost contract model, with the project awarded to OHM Global Mobility, a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland and SWITCH Mobility Automotive. MTC MD T Prabhushankar said unlike the previous models where MTC owned the buses, they leased the buses this time for a 12-year period, and maintenance and operation are entirely the contractor's responsibility.
"We pay 80.86 per km for an assured minimum trip distance of 200km a day. This totals 6.6 crore payment to the contractor over a period of 12 years per bus. The contractor will maintain the buses, including the depot, and will be managed by key-performance indicators. We can cut up to 15% if they err on performance," he said.
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