In a bid to reduce carbon emissions, public buses in Guwahati will soon be converted to electric and CNG-powered buses.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Tuesday, February 1, that the Guwahati Smart City Limited will convert the buses.
“The running of the city buses on diesel has an adverse pollution impact. With this, we want to ensure that Assam positively contributes towards the world’s fight against global warming as well,” the chief minister said.
In the next four to six months, Guwahati will convert 200 city buses to run on electricity and another 100 to run on compressed natural gas (CNG).
The city’s roads are currently served by 799 buses, where there are 268 buses operated by the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC), including 25 pink buses (free service for women and senior citizens) and six buses under Uberisation (private owned buses).
The remaining 531 are private city buses registered with the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and operated by several city bus associations.
