State places orders for 50 CNG buses

kolkata: State Transport department has placed orders for manufacturing 50 CNG buses, which will run across the state. The state Transport department had already introduced two CNG buses in South Bengal recently.

"Initially, CNG 50 buses have been assigned to the manufacturing company. Within one year, all diesel buses will be converted into CNG," said Hakim.

On August 18, Hakim had inaugurated two long distance dual fuel engine (CNG and Diesel) buses to find out an alternative way and avoid suffering losses due to skyrocketing diesel prices in Kasba Transport Bhawan. The dual engine South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC) long distance buses were run on a trial basis between Kolkata and Asansol for two weeks.The main reason of installing dual engine in the long distance bus is that there is less number of CNG filling stations in the state in comparison to petrol pumps selling diesel.

On August 9, Hakim inaugurated two short distance West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) CNG buses in the city. The two WBTC CNG buses were run on trial basis for one-and-a-half months.

The dual fuel system has been developed and retrofitted by Chinmoy Chakraborty, regional advisor of Indian Biogas Association and member of Committee for Standardisation of Biogas Plant, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.

In a bid to reduce pollution, the state Transport department has already introduced electric buses in the city. At present, 80 electric buses are running on the roads. In another one year, 1000 electric buses will be added to the existing fleet.