Public sentiment regarding the electric bus initiative in Chennai is mixed, with a significant portion of criticism aimed at government transparency, management, and concerns of corruption. While some express optimism towards electric buses as a step towards sustainability, others caution against potential infrastructural issues and emphasize the need for an efficient transportation system. Overall, the public displays skepticism about the government's ability to deliver effectively on this initiative amid broader urban transit challenges.

Chennai City Government

Private Transport Contractors

Local Residents

No, metro is on another level of efficiency and regularity compared to buses and is not affected by traffic at all. People can actually depend on it to get to school or work on time unlike a bus.

I think electric buses actually make less sense than regular ac buses because they are 3-4 times more expensive and you have to build infrastructure for charging buses which takes time during which they can't be used. Regular buses are already eco friendly as they carry 40 people with 300-400 horse power. It's better for the environment to buy 4 regular buses than buying 1 electric bus.

JSA790

kilaithalai

Metro was running during floods. Will electric buses run?

ufcmod

Ideally we need both. But who will build the road infra? Having  new 10000 buses alone  is not going to solve the issue. It might make things worse. Metro is most practically solution and no wonder why most of the cities prefer it.

careless_quote101

Need more of both and less of stand autos and private buses

Seredditor7

How many busses can roads take? How many years does an electric bus serve? Metros last 100s of years.

unmadehero

Pls remember there's a community out there that can't travel in buses due to various physical and other ability reasons... So metro is a good option for them 

Also do you really think people will stop hanging from the sides of a bus if more busses are deployed? This is a human mentality problem not a lack of bus problem...

And with insane levels of flooding here there's no way the city will function only with road transport in the last 3 months of the year

believeme111

Recently the transport department awarded tender for operating low floor 12m EV buses. The tender was on a gross cost contract basis. The firm winning the tender would employ the driver and operate/maintain the buses for 12 years. MTC would just put up the conductor.  The operator would be paid on a per km basis. One news article put the cost at 77rs for non AC and 80rs for AC bus per km. 

For comparison, the article said the operating cost of the current fleet was 116rs/km including the conductor. I did some math to find out the cost for conductor/km. MTC has 3500 buses. Say 3 conductors per bus. Thats 10500 conductors. The fleet drove a total 24 crore kms. If MTC pays 50000 rs per conductor. Then cost for conductor/km is around 26rs. So the operating costs would be 103rs/km for non AC EV, 106rs/km for AC EV compared to 116rs/km for the legacy fleet. Just a 3% difference between non AC EV and AC EV bus. Yet MTC put orders for 400 non AC EVs and just 100 Ac EVs. Doesn't make any sense at all. Also, most of the current fleet is only 9 m long I think, I am not sure. 

Our govt wants to treat AC as luxury and the milk the travelers riding the AC buses. I hope metro doesn't turn in to a white elephant. Just go and look at every metro progress video on the corridor between porur and poonamallee. In every video you will the roads dotted with cows. Our priorities seem to be completely wrong. Anyways phase 2 is set to become operational next year. CMRL too does a good job. We still need to increase the fleet and select the routes properly, connect far flung areas frequently, so more people would start using the buses. AC buses at attractive costs would definitely bring the two wheeler riders.

o7p4f4

Bro roads la congestion ippove hair mathiri irukku.. 

I'm all for swapping out the "smoke-machine-tilted-30-degress" death traps with electric busses, but the main traffic flow rate relief can't come from putting more big vehicles on public roads.

Apprehensive_Soup_57

Good point and you are right, but electric buses wouldn’t give the ruling party (whichever party it happens to be) the election platform, nor the kickbacks from contracts.

octane83

The AC electric buses that are currently plying on road (the blue ones) are non AC. The AC e buses are painted in Red and are yet to be pressed into service.

body_soda_25

I like the large windows! What company manufacture these buses? For an example, an Chinese owned company or a local Indian company?

Kona_Red

the front design is kind of confusing me. Never seen the doors to close to the front. 

also, pls have 3 doors, even if the 3rd door wouldn't be low floor. more doors is always better. especially if it's crowded and I bet it is in India. Just some critique, I still think it's nice that your city is buying normal buses and not old style crap or small vans

ur_a_jerk

[Image(s)-Source](https://x.com/tnstcbus/status/1904591151728050372/photo/1)

chipkali_lover

Charging_sky

Are there electric AC buses? I've only seen non-AC ones that look like AC because of the design. 

Also there isn't an AC bus that travels to Thiruvanmiyur via East Tambaram/sozhilinganallur (95). Only 91 via Perungudi is AC.

AFlyingHawk

Chennai is expanding its electric bus fleet to enhance sustainable urban transport.

Electric Buses in Chennai

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want