The bus division of JBM Auto Ltd, the flagship company of the JBM group, has proposed to the West Bengal government to use the overhead wires of trams to charge its electric buses.

Nishant Arya, executive director of the JBM group, who spoke to The Telegraph oat the auto expo, said: “We are in discussions with the West Bengal government about using the overhead wiring network of the tram system in Calcutta to ply our 12 metre Eco-life e12 bus.

“These buses can be charged with the pantograph charger that can be hooked onto the overhead wire and get a consistent flow of energy. This will help optimise the battery size. Wherever there are no wires, stored energy from the battery can be used to run the buses,” he said.

“We are the only company that uses the pantograph charging system. And Calcutta is the only city that already has an extensive network of overhead wire. No other city has this. We can provide clean, zero emission transportation in the entire city using the overhead wires,” said Arya.

The company has three types of chargers for its e-buses — plug-in fast charger, slow chargers and the pantograph charger.

JBM Auto, which is bidding for buses in several cities under the FAME II scheme, provides the entire EV ecosystem for its buses, including charging infrastructure, transformer setups and vehicle technology . Under the FAME II scheme, the government has sanctioned 5,595 electric buses in 64 cities.

“We have provided 30 of our 9-metre Eco-life buses to Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) complete with the entire infrastructure and they have clocked 3 lakh kilometre in about six months now,” said Arya.

These buses have a 300kWh battery and have a range of 120-150 km on a single charge.