Kochi City to get more KSRTC CNG buses
Transport minister A K Saseendran said that the director board of KSRTC to be held on Saturday will give permission for procuring compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for Kochi.
He said that the director board is to give approval for purchasing 900 buses. Of these, a certain percentage would be CNG buses which would be allotted to Kochi and the number and routes of these buses would be decided as per the requirements and facilities such as accessibility to CNG bunks.
Then, the KSRTC officials in Kochi would be asked to conduct a study on which routes these buses can start operations. The officials should also prepare more routes through which the CNG bus services can be started in the next phase. Indian Oil Corporation, Kerala head, P S Mony said that the IOC Adani Gas Private Ltd (IOAGPL) would roll out more CNG filling stations in Kochi soon.
“In the next one year, we would start 10 more CNG filling stations in Kochi. We would take the number of CNG filling stations in Kochi to at least 50 in the next five years,” Mony said. The first CNG bus owned by KSRTC started service in Kochi from Friday.
The bus would start service from Vyttila at 6.30am and would ply via Chackaraparambu, Palarivattom, Edappally, Aluva, High Court, Menaka and South as a circular service. Many of agencies which alter petrol engines to suit CNG fuel have already started their workshops in Kochi.
At least 30 such workshops have started their ventures in different parts of the city.
On Thursday, four CNG filling stations started operations at IOC fuel bunks on Container Road at Kalamassery, near SCMS College at Muttom and Pulinchode in Aluva and Maradu.
After the introduction of City Gas Project in Kochi in February 2016, IOAGPL has given piped natural gas (PNG) connections to about 2,500 households in and around Kalamassery, officials associated with the project said. Pipelines have been drawn to different parts of Kochi to enable give more domestic and industrial connections.
Courtesy – M K Sunil Kumar.
