Possibilities of Private Bus Operators Adopting Electric Buses in Passenger Transport: a Case Study in Kolkata, India

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IJEP 43(5): 440-451 : Vol. 43 Issue. 5 (May 2023)

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Atanu Dutta, Deepanjan Majumdar, Tarak Nath Chell and Tushar Jash*

Jadavpur University, School of Energy Studies, Kolkata, West Bengal – 700 032, India

Abstract

Passenger transit activities of a region are an appropriate reflection of the economic and technological aspects in- situ. Buses play an important role in mass transit activities in urban regions, however, in developing economies, the traffic scenario shows distinctive implications on its dynamic performance. In India, only 7.3% of the buses are operated by State Road Transport Undertakings, whereas private operators play a significant role. The present study discusses the electrification programme of buses in Indian scenario, based on the case study of Kolkata city. The possibility of involvement of private bus owners in the vehicle electrification programme has been illustrated, based on the conventional vehicle ownership model, exhibited in the bus sector. The study also illustrates the real-world operating scenarios for the presently deployed electric buses compared to their conventional counterparts. It was observed that electric buses exhibited a mean energy consumption rate of 0.97 kWh/km. Moreover, the benefit expenditure ratio for electric buses varied from -0.14 to 0.26 compared to 0.10 for diesel buses from the private owners’ perspective.

Keywords

Electric bus, Energy consumption, Traffic performance, Financial analysis

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