Kashmir

Nodal officer appointed for electric bus project in J&K

JAMMU — Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday appointed a noadl officer for expeditious execution of the electric bus project for the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar, an official said.

Jammu and Kashmir administration is procuring a fleet of 200 electric buses, 100 each for capital cities of the Union Territory, Jammu and Srinagar.

Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Dheeraj Gupta appointed General Manager, Finance, Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL), as the nodal officer during a high-level meeting convened to review the progress of the project, the official said.

The JSCL and Srinagar Smart City Limited (SSCL) are the project executing agencies.

The officials said the meeting was informed that the Letter of Intent (LoI) has been issued to Tata Motors for the supply and operations of the electric buses.

An LoI was also issued to Chalo Mobility Pvt Ltd to establish National Common Mobility Card compliant Digital Ticketing Solution. The contract agreement with both the service providers will be signed soon.

Asserting that establishment of e-bus services is a very crucial project and will play a big role towards adopting a clean mode of transport, Gupta asked the project executing agencies to expedite the process and clear bottlenecks at the earliest.

He directed concerned officials to make proactive efforts to ensure that the electric buses should ply soon, the official said.

The official said the commissioning of electric buses in both cities will play a vital role in reducing pollution levels.

Besides, the electric buses are also equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like real time passenger information system, live tracking, panic button, location system, CCTV cameras, stop request system, online ticket booking, payments through QR code and other security related features, he said. — (PTI)