The Goverment of Tamil nadu signed the C40 Clean Bus Declaration on March 28, 2018 in Chennai. The signing was done by the Additonal Chief Secretary of Transport Mr PWC Davidar I.A.S in the presence of the Honorable Chief Minister Thiru E Palanisamy, Tranport Minister Thiru Vijay Bhasker and Chief Secretary Ms Girija Vaidhyanathan I.A.S. The event was held in Chief Secretariat.
The C40 Clean bus declaration is an ambitious announcement of the Government of Tamil Nadu and it is also the first by any city in the Country.
Already 26 cities worldwide are signatory to this annoucement. As part of this Memoradum of Understanding C40 will assist the state is creating a roadmap for Electric Buses. This declaration has helped cities to broadcast to manufacturers of Electric buses about an intent to move into an electric bus system. Additionally, cities that have signed the Clean bus declaration have been able to reduce the cost of procurement of electric buses.
The declaration was signed by Mr Kevin Austin, Deputy Director of projects of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group that is headquartered in London. Speaking on the announcement, Mr Kevin appreciated the outstanding leadership exhibited by the state is signing this declaration.
Currently, the 27 signatory cities have committed to having over 50,000 buses operating via clean technologies by 2020. If these cities reach their 2020 clean bus targets, it would result in a cumulative 880,528 tons per year in GHG savings. If all new buses procured by signatory cities between now and 2020 incorporate clean technology, this figure would rise to almost 989,000 tons per year in GHG savings. As we can see, current targets result in the up-take of thousands of clean buses and significant GHG savings. If market conditions became more favorable, current 2020 goals could very well be surpassed given the interest among participating cities and additional cities that will likely sign the Declaration in the near future.
At present China is home to the world’s largest electric bus fleet with more than 100000 + buses, which is more than all the other countries put together. This is also largely because of the subsidy provided by the Chinese government for domestic electric and hybrod bus manufacturers.
C40 is a network of 90+ megacities of the world with Chennai being a C40 city.