Mumbai's BEST gets 26 swank electric AC buses

Mumbai, Dec 4 (IANS) With a view to curb pollution, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday dedicated 26 air conditioned electric buses built by Tata Motors to Mumbai's public transport system, BEST.In order to verify the comforts from the passengers' viewpoint, Thackeray hopped onto one of the electric buses and went on a short ride accompanied by various officials.The Electric Bus Scheme is being implemented under the Centre's Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV (FAME) scheme, initiated by the Union Ministry of Heavy Industry.Under FAME, 340 electric buses have been sanctioned of which 26 joined the Mumbai's BEST fleet of public buses, in the presence of Mumbai Guardian Ministers Aslam Shaikh and Aditya Thackeray, Mayor Kishori Pednekar, BEST General Manager S.K. Bagde, Mumbai South MP Arvind Sawant and other dignitaries.Aditya Thackeray said that presently 46 electric buses are running in Mumbai and the government will follow up to ensure that a maximum number will be available in the coming days as they would help the environment.The swank new buses, which can attain speeds of upto 75 kmph are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities including CCTVs, several safety features for women, children or senior citizens, and a lift for disabled passengers to help them board-deboard.
--IANS qn/vd