Levelling the plying field

With several state transport undertakings incurring huge losses, Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of road transport and highways, assured that a lithium-ion battery for buses developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) would be a game changer. Citing the example of Madhya Pradesh, he said the state transport undertaking was under so much financial strain that quite often the fare collected from passengers on a route was used for filling diesel. The situation was such that workers at filling stations in Maharastra shooed away buses from Madhya Pradesh. With the battery developed by Isro, existing buses could be converted to electricity-run vehicles, levelling the 'plying field'.