Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has recently received prototype of electric buses from FAME-II scheme under central government. The KSRTC would operate 50 inter-city air-conditioned electric buses in the coming days, said officials, adding, the rest of the electric buses are expected to arrive in Bengaluru by February.
The electric buses will be provided by Olectra Greentech Limited. KSRTC has chosen its Electric Bus name as ‘EV- Power Plus’ with a tagline ‘e-Xperience e-levated. All the remaining electric buses would be put into operation in the routes —Bengaluru to Mysuru, Madikeri, Virajpet, Davangere, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru.
While electric charging centres for the buses have already been set up in Bengaluru and Mysuru, the setting up of charging centres are under progress in Madikeri, Virajpet, Davanagere, Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru. Each bus will have a total of 43 seats for passengers,” KSRTC said.
“KSRTC has launched two different accident insurance schemes together amounting Rs 1 crore for welfare of all the employees. A zero premium for Rs 50 lakhs accident insurance is under an MoU made between KSRTC and State Bank of India (SBI) through their Corporate Salary Package Scheme while the remaining Rs 50 lakh accident insurance scheme is from United India Insurance on payment of an annual premium of Rs 885 from the employees. KSRTC signed an MoU with the SBI on October 19 and the MoU with the United Bank was signed on November 14 this year,” KSRTC said.