'Focus is on electric buses as state modernises public transport'

Public transport in Uttar Pradesh is "undergoing a transformation" that has connected villages and cities and will lead to electric buses running in all districts, said Minister Dayashankar Singh at Business Standard's Samriddhi conference in Lucknow.

- SIDDHARTH KALHANS

Describing clean mobility as a critical need, Singh stated that initially, Uttar Pradesh had only 1,500 electric buses, which mostly operated within cities. Such buses are operational in only 15 cities, but the government has now decided to expand this reach to 43 districts and several rural areas. The government is continuously issuing tenders for new electric buses, but the challenge lies in the fact that few companies in the country manufacture them. Consequently, the supply of buses is not received on time. He cited an example where tenders for 5,000 electric buses were floated over the past year, but companies could not deliver them in full because they lacked the capacity for such large-scale production.