CNG buses conquer Ahmedabad roads

Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Corporation (AMTS), the transport arm of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), is riding high on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses.

AMC plans to have a total of 750 buses by December, with 400 CNG buses and 350 other buses. Though there have been enough of delays in procurement of CNG buses, AMTS by this December plans to have 400 CNG buses.

At present, out of the total 560 buses plying in the city, around 207 buses run on CNG. The number of CNG buses would be doubled in the coming two months.

"The new CNG buses have helped revamp AMTS's image, increasing the reliability and credibility of the transport system in City. Revenues have gone up from Rs 13 lakh per day before the CNG service was introduced to Rs 18 lakh per day.

"With the increase in number of buses by December we expect the revenue to cross the 25 lakh mark," said Asit Vora, chairman, AMTS. On Wednesday, AMTS received 34 more CNG buses from Tata Motors which have gone for further work. These would be on the roads in December.

AMTS introduced many new schemes and also plan to introduce a few more", he said.

ATMS reduced bus fares by half and also gave an offer of roaming anywhere in the city using public transport for Rs 15," remarked T G Jhalavadia, deputy municipal commissioner.

With the introduction of CNG buses on a few routes, the old AMTS buses were replaced by CNG buses. The old buses were used on the routes where the number of buses plying was relatively less. The number of passengers too commuting had doubled, bringing the total number of people using public transport per day to 6 lakh as against 3 lakh before April.

The major revenue generating routes for AMTS were Vasna-Chandkheda, Maninagar-Sattadhar and Laldarwaja- Santej, along with the circular routes.

AMC also recently introduced a low-floor bus that was longer and had cushioned seats. The bus had been specially designed to serve the needs of handicapped travelers.

The bus travelled on the Vasna, Paldi and Chandkheda routes.

At present, only one such bus had been introduced.

AMC would have five low-floor buses by December and 300 more such buses later.