Batteries of PMPML electric buses get damaged within four years
The batteries of the electric buses were supposed to last for seven years but the problem started in the fourth year.
Mrunal Jadhav
Pune: The batteries of the electric buses that were introduced by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) in the first phase have started to discharge before their expected runtime. Due to this early discharging of batteries and taking more time for charging, the schedule of PMPML is getting disturbed and passengers have to wait for a long time.
The PMPML bus service is limited for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad and around 1650 buses run on various routes. Out of these, 398 buses are electric buses. However, 60 electric buses are at the depot due to non-operation of the charging station. During inspection, it came to light that 13 buses had damaged batteries.
In the first phase in 2019, 50 electric buses were added to the PMPML bus service. The charging of buses lasted for less time than expected and the buses are taking a long time to get charged. The batteries of the electric buses were supposed to last for seven years but the problem started in the fourth year. Therefore, the administration has decided to inspect 125 electric buses introduced after the phase one.
Speaking about this, Dattatray Zende, manager of PMPML said, “The electric-buses which came in the first phase in 2019 will be audited. The audit will be done with 150 buses, out of which 9-metre buses are 25 and 12-meter buses will be 125. The batteries of the 9-metre buses are not working properly.”
