Chief Minister of Maharashtra – Devendra Fadnavis – and Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping – Nitin Gadkari – launched India’s first ethanol-run green bus service at Yeshwant Stadium, Nagpur, on Monday.  The green bus service has been launched as part of the new bus service – Aapli Bus service – for Nagpurians along with diesel red bus services too.

Guardian Minister and Minister for Ministry of Energy, New and Renewable Energy, Maharashtra Chandrashekhar Bawankule, ruling party leader Dayashankar Tiwari, Nagpur Transport Committee Chairman  Narendra Borkar, Chief Secretary Goverment of Maharashtra  Swadhin Kshatriya, Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, Nagpur Mayor Pravin Datke, MLA Krishna Khopde, MLA Vikas Kumbhare and MLC Girish Vyas were also present at the function.

Speaking at the occasion Nitin Gadkari said, India is spending around seven lakh crores on petrol, diesel and oil imports. This massive expenditure can be substantially reduced if we start using eco-friendly fuels like ethanol, methanol, bio fuel, etc. This will help reduce air pollution in the country. Indian farmers will also be benefited from production of these types of fuel. Vehicles running with the help of ethanol and methanol and E-rickshaw will be the future means of transportation. Gadkari also promised to make Nagpur as India’s first city to have all its city buses to run on bio fuel.

CM Devendra Fadnavis praised Gadkari for his eco-friendly idea and also launched the mobile app  – Aapli Bus service. The mobile app will be helpful in providing information about bus services, vacant seats, routes, etc to the commuters.

The green bus service has been launched with an intention to reduce pollution and maintain better quality of air in Nagpur. Under the new Aapli Bus service, 25 new buses (consisting of green and red buses) will operate on six routes – Brahmani Fata Kalmeshwar to Sitabuldi, Butibori, Pipla fata, Defence to Sitabuldi, Hingna to Sitabuldi and Pardi to Sitabuldi via Gandhibagh. A passenger will have to shell out a minimum of Rs 14 and Rs 8 to travel in green and red diesel buses respectively.

The buses under Aapli Bus service are very well equipped. While red diesel buses have automatic door system, vehicle tracking system, CCTV cameras, passenger system board, reverse camera, etc, green buses are equipped with automatic doors, automatic announcement systems for stoppages, rear engine, fire extinguisher, CCTV cameras, automatic emergency window button, charger points, vehicle tracking system, led display with mike for announcements, etc.