Mumbai Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Wednesday that as the wheels of time keep rolling, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) is also adapting newer technologies and looking at emission-free transport services.
At the 74th Foundation Day celebrations of MSRTC, Thackeray flagged off the corporation’s first electric bus in Pune in the presence of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and transport minister Anil Parab. The chief minister said that the corporation plans to start another 150 in the next one month and 3,000 within the span of a year.
The event was organised at the divisional office of MSRTC in Pune, where the corporation’s first bus was flagged off on June 1, 1948.
“The state transport corporation is adopting new concepts to improve bus services. Mumbai became the first city in the country to introduce the most electric buses. The technology behind electric vehicles (EVs) is new and it will take time to get used to it. We are putting in efforts to ensure that the state transport bus services are pollution-free. Our goal is to make progress according to the needs of the time and changes in technology,” Thackeray said in a virtual address.
The MSRTC started its first electric bus between Pune and Ahmednagar. “We are entering the 75th year of MSRTC and the electric bus ‘Shivai’ was flagged off on the same route where the first MSRTC bus started on June 1. The state government has decided to use more electric buses for transport,” said Parab.
He further added that the state government plans to start around 3,000 buses within the next year. “In the next one month, we have plans to start around 150 electric buses, and by the end of the year, we should have around 3,000 electric buses of MSRTC,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chief minister said that the strike of the MSRTC workers was a difficult period and assured that the corporation and state government were united. “We will have to bear the loss when we provide transport service at an affordable price. With this in mind, the government has guaranteed the salaries of the employees for the next few years. The state government would continue to provide all possible assistance to the employees,” Thackeray said.