People wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP)

Seven years and many bus stories among us recall the old buses. Noisy, smoke-belching, hot and crowded. Time to retire the old ones and at least lessen the noise and belching. Thanks to Sarah Spengeman and Yale Climate Connections:

India makes a big bet on electric buses

Fast-growing cities need electric buses if the country is to meet its climate goals.

Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that arrives earlier to wait for a smoother, cooler ride in a new model. This has fed a new problem: overcrowding. Fortunately, more new buses are on the way.

Last fall, India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched a $7 billion initiative to support 10,000 new electric buses in 169 Indian cities. The PM-eBus Sewa program prioritizes small to medium-sized cities of up to 4 million people, particularly those now lacking organized bus service. India hopes this will make public transport — not private vehicles — integral to sustainable urban growth and city culture in the country that last year overtook China to become the world’s most populous nation.

India’s burgeoning cities are expected to be home to an estimated 416 million more people by 2050 — the largest urban increase in the world. Massive growth could worsen both traffic congestion and air quality in a country that already has nine of the 10 most polluted cities on the planet and ranks second in deaths related to transportation pollution.

But more traffic and pollution is not inevitable, since India has yet to build 70 to 80% of city infrastructure that will be needed by 2050. The government initiative aims to make clean, electrified public transportation the norm.

Read the whole article here.