Ogun State Government has commenced the process of converting fossil-powered vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered in furtherance of its E-Mobility and Gas Mobility Programme.
The programme involves the conversion of mass transit buses from fuel to gas and tricycles and motorcycles to electric.
To transform the plan into reality, a team of technical engineers from India has arrived the state and now holding talks with the state government to begin the process of converting the vehicles
According to the government, the four-man technical team will work on the pilot project, initiate the first phase of the Gas Mobility Programme and prepare a process map to scale up and do a phase-wise implementation on all the commercial buses in the state.
The Governor Dapo Abiodun-led administration had in March this year, in partnership with Nigerian Transport Solutions Limited (NGTSL), took delivery of the CNG conversion kits for the pilot phase of the state’s mass transit buses to be fueled by the CNG.
The CNG project is a demonstration of administration’s commitment to a cleaner economy and provide cheaper means of transportation in the state, especially with the removal of subsidy on fuel by the Federal Government in May.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Tokunbo Talabi, confirmed that the Indian engineers were in the process of starting the conversion process and that some of the state’s mass transit buses will start running on CNG in the first week of August.
He said: “The CNG team are on the ground. I was part of the team that received the CNG kits on behalf of the government early in the year and I visited the project site this morning (Tuesday). His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun is a man of his word and such a highly progressive Governor deserves all necessary support for Ogun State to continue to progress.
“The aim is to improve and modernize bus operations in Ogun State through conversion of buses to Compressed Natural Gas by equipping them with the latest technology to improve environmental and operational performance.
“Moreover, the newly fitted buses are expected to improve public transportation reliability, safety and efficiency and reduce polluting air emissions. The pilot project will commence with the conversion of twenty buses from diesel to CNG and exploring the performance before rolling out the programme,” Talabi added.
Also, he disclosed that the conversion process would take between four to six weeks, involving the mass transit buses currently in operation in the state capital, Abeokuta as well as others to be deployed in the fleet to serve the planned Mowe-Berger axis.
