Govt takes delivery of 100 electric buses - Move to boost urban transportation

The government has commissioned the first batch of 100 electric buses to augment the fleet of the Metro Mass Transit Limited.

The buses are expected to reduce the cost of operations of the MMT Limited by 40 per cent and minimise the cost of transportation for the public.

The objective for the deployment of the buses was its energy-efficiency. It will also play a lead role in the transition process in the use of electric vehicles, including the zero emissions agenda of the national electric vehicle policy.

It is being piloted by the MMT Limited and would subsequently be extended to transport organisations such as the State Transport Company (STC) and “Ayalolo”.

Significance

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who unveiled the buses at a ceremony in Accra yesterday, said the transport sector was a major contributing factor to the growth of the economy.

Electric buses 

Dr Bawumia, who is also the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said the shift towards electric vehicles was, therefore, to improve the transport sector.

He said the growth of state transport companies had been impacted by high operational costs such as fuel, revenue leakages and maintenance costs.

In addressing those challenges, Dr Bawumia said the government supplied 200 intercity buses to augment and expand their operations, 100 buses to Intercity STC Limited, including the deployment of an electronic ticketing system, to address revenue leakages, among other interventions such as the implementation of the Ghana Card.

“We have made it possible and other countries are now coming to learn from Ghana about how to issue their national ID cards in their countries.

“Similarly, many people scoffed at the idea of the introduction of mobile money interoperability and drones to help deliver medicines and vaccines,” he said.

Dr Bawumia said the situation was the same “even with the introduction of free Senior High School, but we made it possible”.

“When we talked about Agenda 111, they said we could not do it, but we have shown that we can do it, and we are doing it. It was same with hostels for kayayei, but we have made it possible,” the Vice-President added.

Outboard motors

On the introduction of solar outboard motors as an alternative to premix fuel to fishermen in the country, Dr Bawumia said the idea “was met with the same sense of impossibilities and they even laughed at the idea but we have made it possible”.

“I am saying all these because of the mindset of impossibility. We are going to transform this country, and we need a possibility mindset,” he said

The Vice-President further said that rather than being discouraged because of the negativity, the people should be encouraged to follow through the implementation of electric vehicles for public transport in the country.

Reforms

The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, expressed appreciation to Dr Bawumia for the introduction of electric vehicles by policy into the country.

He said the introduction of the buses was part of efforts to reform the public transport system.

He said MMT Limited was being used to test the system to identify problems likely to be encountered in its operations.

For his part, the Managing Director of MMT, Albert Adu Boahen, said the mission of the company was to ensure public transport was not only accessible and affordable but also contributed to the overall well-being of people it served.