How India moves: Srinagar’s bus reform is redefining urban mobility in mountain cities

Srinagar, the largest city in the Himalayan region, is charting a new course in urban mobility by introducing a formal electric bus service for the first time in its history. Led by Srinagar Smart City Ltd (SSCL), the initiative demonstrates how even geographically constrained, climate-sensitive cities can deliver meaningful air quality and carbon benefits through thoughtful planning and institutional coordination.

Until 2023, Srinagar lacked a formal city bus system. Public transport was dominated by small, privately operated diesel minibuses and informal shared modes. The launch of an official electric bus service in November 2023 — with 78 buses deployed in 2023-24 and 22 more for 2024-25 — marks a major departure from this fragmented, polluting model. Managed by SSCL under a gross cost contract (GCC) with Tata Motors, the fleet now covers 16 routes, with services operating from 6.00 am to 1.15 am daily.

The environmental benefits are already evident. Based on an annual mileage of 70,000 kilometres per bus, I calculated the particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) benefits of this transition. The electrification of 100 buses is cutting 5,642 tonnes of CO₂, 5.6 tonnes of NOx and 0.041 tonnes of PM emissions each year.

These estimates account for both direct fuel combustion avoided — specifically tailpipe emissions of NOx and PM — and indirect emissions from electricity use, assuming a grid emission factor of 0.2 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per megawatt-hour, thanks to a hydro-dominated energy mix. The public transport upgrade delivers a two-fold gains: It replaces older, higher-emitting minibuses and encourages a shift from private vehicles to shared electric transit.

Daily ridership now averages 60,000 passengers, according to the Comprehensive Mobility Plan For Srinagar. Depending on the mix of vehicles avoided — ranging from conservative assumptions based on the mobility plan to a more ambitious modal shift scenario — the emission savings from mode shift alone range from 2,760 to 3,376 tonnes of CO₂, 13.5 to 16.6 tonnes of NOx and 0.25 to 0.44 tonnes of PM annually.

Despite these achievements, Srinagar’s electric mobility transformation faces institutional and infrastructure challenges. There is currently only one operational depot, leading to high dead kilometres and reduced service efficiency. While SSCL plans to construct eight more charging locations, progress has been slow. Moreover, only 19 per cent of built-up areas lie within a 400-metre walk of a bus stop, indicating limited physical accessibility.

Coordination bottlenecks have also emerged. SSCL, while agile, lacks the legal mandate of a city-level unified transport authority. This hampers route rationalisation, multi-operator integration and fare governance. Procurement of the next batch of 100 buses under the PM e-Bus Sewa scheme is stalled due to administrative delays.

Still, SSCL’s approach offers critical lessons. The agency ensured project continuity and specialisation by hiring a dedicated mobility planning team and onboarding private technical support. Citizen consultation helped build public trust and real-time digital ticketing via the Chalo app modernised the passenger experience.

In a region where winter smog is exacerbated by topography and climate, replacing diesel-powered buses with electric alternatives can deliver outsized pollution benefits. But the real breakthrough lies in establishing formal public transport infrastructure where none existed before. By placing people — not private vehicles — at the heart of its urban design and mobility decisions, Srinagar is proving that Himalayan cities can lead India’s clean transport transition.

Urban mobility is not just about moving vehicles — it’s about planning for people. Clean air and carbon gains follow naturally when cities build systems to move people equitably, reliably and sustainably.

This article is part of our series on how India moves, which looks at the relationship between air quality and human mobility in cities and towns