TTD plan to transform Tirumala into green town, inducts 35 electric cars

Tirupati: In a bid to transform Tirumala into a holy green town, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has inducted 35 electric cars into its transport fleet. TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy along with TTD EO Dr Jawahar Reddy on Monday launched the electric cars at Tirumala after performing special pujas to the vehicles.

The TTD chairman told the media that, in a bid to transform Tirumala into a holy green city, TTD has chalked out plans to replace diesel and petrol vehicles with electric vehicles at Tirumala. More and more electric vehicles will be inducted in a phased manner.

“In the first phase, 35 Tata Nexon electric cars bought from the public sector CESL (Conversion Energy Services Ltd) are to ply on Tirumala roads. For this, TTD will pay an EMI of `33,600 per month for five years for each vehicle, to own vehicles later. The leasing company would bear maintenance cost during this five-year period. In the second phase, 32 electric buses including 20 TTD free buses and 12 RTC buses will be inducted within six months,” he added.

According to officials, the electric buses meant for RTC will be operated between Srivari Padalu, Akasaganga and Papavinasanam routes. Upon TTD’s request, the RTC will operate all electric buses on Tirupati-Tirumala ghat roads in the next six months.

A fully charged electrical vehicle could travel for 250km and it will take eight hours for each charging with AC current and 90 minutes for DC electricity, totally consuming 30 units of power for each charge. At present, the power cost is `6.70 per unit and it worked out to only 80 paise per km.

The TTD chairman appealed to TTD employees, locals, traders and taxi operators travelling on Tirumala ghat roads to convert their vehicles into electric vehicles at the earliest to make Tirumala pollution free. TTD additional EO Dharma Reddy, CVSO Gopinath Jatti, transport GM Sesha Reddy and other senior officials were present.