BY: Zaki Salleh
TAIPING – The Taiping Municipal Council (MPT) has temporarily suspended the electric bus (EV) service that was supposed to start last May 1 (Monday).
The matter was informed through a post on MPT’s official Facebook page.
However, there was no further information on the reason for the delay and its duration.
It is understood that many visitors who wanted to use the EV bus service yesterday were unable to do so as it was a holiday.
On average, they also didn’t know about the temporary postponement considering that many people came from outside the district to spend holidays other than celebrating.
One April 17, this EV bus service was officially launched by the State Housing and Local Government Committee Chairman Sandrea Ng Shy Ching.
This bus that passes through the Taiping Heritage Trail area was to operate for a trial period of three months from May 1 to July 31.
After that, from August 1, the bus service will operate for a fee to the public.
The operation of the bus makes MPT the first local authority in the country to own and manage an EV bus.
The MPT EV bus has a capacity of 22 passengers and one disabled passenger (OKU).
It is an initiative of several local and foreign companies since 2015.
The bus is fully electric and donated by the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
