195 buses go green: inside Nagpur’s quiet transport overhaul

Nagpur’s municipal bus fleet is in for a significant overhaul after the transport committee approved converting 150 midi buses and 45 minibuses, 195 vehicles in total, to CNG. Transport committee chairperson Mangala Khekre said the entire conversion cost would be borne by the bus operator under a five-year agreement, so the civic body itself carries no financial burden for the switch.

The same Tuesday meeting cleared the operation of 91 buses across seven routes in the Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA) area, extending the Aapli Bus network’s reach beyond the city core.

Older, decommissioned buses are getting a second life too. The committee approved repurposing scrapped buses into air-conditioned public toilets, breastfeeding rooms and commercial kiosks intended for livelihood generation. Two condemned buses will be handed to a voluntary organisation to run canteens, and the standing committee has separately asked for eight more buses for similar public-utility use.

Technology featured heavily in the same meeting: an AI-based system tested on five Aapli Buses to count boarding and alighting passengers came back 97% accurate, a result Khekre said would help the department run more efficiently and increase revenue. The committee approved a Project Advisory Committee to take the AI rollout further.

Committee members also debated how to make better use of the fleet’s advertising potential. Member Bandu Raut suggested that advertisements be displayed on older buses rather than on the newly inducted PM e-buses, while fellow member Vijay Hole proposed installing digital advertising displays inside the new electric buses instead.

[Source: Times of India] Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Rsrikanth05