Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 25:

Electric four-wheelers have finally made their way to the capital city. The three new four-wheeler buses were inaugurated today by Dr Shankar Sharma, the vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission. The buses will begin operation from this year. For this, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Himalayan Light Foundation (HLF) and the Nepal Electric Vehicle Charging Association (NEVCA) for operation of the Electro-Bus II in a commercial profile along with further data acquisition this year. The keys and the vehicles were handed over to the NEVCA. Among three models, the second one is based on a special AC drive which gives the bus ability to climb hills with reasonable speed and has a top speed of just over 50 km per hour on the flat. Adam Friedensiohn, the founder of the HLF and Electro Bus Programme Coordinator, said, “We are now certain that there are locally constructible alternatives to polluting vehicles in various four-wheel categories, which are both economically and technically feasible.” Yadav Gurung, HLF programme manager, said, “We have operated all three prototypes and know pretty well what they can do for Nepal.”