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Nepal Ennvironment
Nepal Electro Bus Project for Clean Air
Advantages of Electro-Bus for Nepal
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Nepal Electro Bus Project for Clean Air

The quality of the air in Kathmandu is one of the worst worldwide. Measures to reduce air pollution are a must. Among others, air pollution is causing serious, documented health problems, and tourism has decreased, causing a loss of foreign currency reserves.

Tourism
The quality of the air in Kathmandu is one of the worst worldwide. Measures to reduce air pollution are a must. Among others, air pollution is causing serious, documented health problems, and tourism has decreased, causing a loss of foreign currency reserves.

A recent survey of approximately 2,000 tourists leaving Nepal clearly showed that tourists felt that the largest issue needing improvement in Kathmandu was the heavy vehicular pollution.

Sadly, as a sign of this truth, entrepreneurs have recently been able to make profits selling pure oxygen in bars for tourist and local Nepali consumption in this once pristine country.

One measure to improve the situation is the introduction of new types of Electric Vehicles (EV's), which should replace old polluting vehicles. The inputs of SDC aim at supporting the activities of the Himalayan Light Foundation (HLF) and at assisting in reaching sustainable solutions. Kathmandu is probably the city with worldwide the highest number of EV's operating in public transportation. 650 "Safa Tempos" (3-wheel electric passenger vehicles) are in use, employing over 1000 Nepalese every day.

They play an important role in Kathmandu's transportation system. About 100'000 passengers directly profit daily from this clean form of transportation. The Safa Tempos have proved to be the viable and approved substitute when the heavily polluting Diesel Vikram tempos were banned in 1999.

According to a USAID study, the 1500 or so polluting predecessors of the "clean" three wheeled tempo, called "Vikram" Tempos spewed dense clouds of unregulated black smoke into the air and were responsible for more than 25% of the on-road vehicular traffic and upwards of 30% of the valley's pollution.

As a result of that original electric vehicle project, there are now more than 600 electric three-wheeled Clean Tempos plying the streets of Kathmandu as part of the city's public transportation system.

Based on the private sector's success in sustainably setting these clean vehicles in motion and in response to the customers requirements for a safer, more modern Electric Bus, the Himalayan Light Foundation commenced the Electro-Bus development and demonstration project in 2001 in order to design a few prototypes of electro- Buses and to test the technological and financial viability while encouraging the private sector to adapt the Electro-Buses for local manufacture.

The HLF Electro-Bus programme took the vehicles through theoretical design stages, matching these findings with readily available or "off-the-shelf" electric vehicle components such as controllers, motors, switching devises, data acquisition units, deep cycle batteries and other local components. The locally produced prototype Electro-Buses were then tested on fixed routes to check their technical capabilities and to make adjustments and improvements

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Advantages of Electro-Bus for Nepal
Presents and alternative to several thousand 20 year old, heavily
polluting vehicles
Substantially reduces overall Kathmandu valley pollution
Offers larger seating capacity than SAFA Tempos of 15 - 20 seats
Presents no dangers of leaking LP gas
Needs no internal subsidy from Nepal Oil Corporation to be
commercially viable
Does not produce uncontainable waste
Helps Nepal revive its crippled tourism industry
Presents passengers with added safety over three wheelers
Uses Nepal's own clean excess off-peak hydro power and save Nepal
foreign currency
Modern design will help Kathmandu's overall look
Salient Features:
Ranges between 90-120 Kilometers per charge without battery
exchange
Charges by Off peak hydro power
Salient Features:
Seats between 15 - 20 passengers
Runs at speeds up to 45 KM/Hr and reaches the higher speeds much faster than SAFA tempos.
Source: Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) 2005

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more information
Kathmandu City Photo Gallery Kathmandu Valley Photo Gallery
Himalayas in Nepal
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External link
Himalayan Light Foundation
Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) Nepal website
SDC Nepal
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