City’s first Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) bus to make its appearance in next week. As per the earlier schedule the bus was to arrive in the month of January but due to some technical difficulties it got delayed. The first bus will be coming to Nagpur from Mumbai next week. The civic body will be switching the city buses to environment friendly fuel CNG.  They have received these diesel buses under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission ( JNNRUM) from the Central Government.
The Transport Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation has decided to run its High Speed Diesel (HSD) buses on CNG. As per the information available Travel Time company has conceded to switch the diesel buses by installing the CNG Kits. The company will invest in installing the CNG kits in the buses for free. Though the cost of a kit is approximately Rs. 3.5 lakh, the company won’t be charging anything to the Transport Department against the installation of the kits.
However, a CNG filling station is to commence at Khapri over civic body’s land. Current rate of 1kg of CNG is Rs. 50 but the company will charge Rs. 55 to cover the cost of CNG Kit. The company will also sell CNG to other buses and the profit earned will be shared on 50:50 ratio.
These buses will not only reduce the financial burden on NMC but will also reduce the air pollution in city drastically. At, present the diesel buses are running upto 3 kms in 1 ltr of diesel, while a CNG bus will be running upto 4.5 kms in 1 kg of CNG. Even the prices of CNG are quite less as compared to the diesel. Cost of CNG is Rs. 55 per kg diesel is of Rs. 75 per liter.
Transport Department has advised to convert a total of 50 buses to CNG out of 79 diesel buses provided to operator Travel Time. Total 237 buses are currently operating on city roads.
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