Kuching’s hydrogen bus service starts tomorrow, travel for free all the way to Damai

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Abang Johari (right), Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin (right) and SEDC chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain (centre) riding the hydrogen bus during tour.

KUCHING: Sarawak’s highly anticipated hydrogen bus service will officially commence here tomorrow, offering passengers free rides on two routes with stops near various attractions in the city.

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg told reporters today that the service is free for both tourists and locals and will be available from 7am to 7pm daily.

“This is a pilot project. We will add busses if the need arises in the near future,” he said at the press conference after taking a ride on one of the buses at the launch of the service.

The 14km Downtown Heritage Loop has stops at Kuching Waterfront, Central Timur Road, Ban Hock Road, Riverside Majestic Hotel, Kubah Ria, and the Malay Kampung Heritage Area-Kampung Bandarshah 2.

The 67km Damai Loop, meanwhile, takes passengers from Riverside Majestic Hotel to Sarawak Museum, Satok, Petrajaya and Damai Central.

Abang Johari said the bus service is a joint effort undertaken by the state Transport Ministry and Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) to promote a reliable, affordable, safe and eco-friendly Public Transportation System in Sarawak.

He said all three buses in the service are equipped with the H2Sarawak mobile application, which was created and developed by Sarawakian Merlvin Ong from the web design company, Karuna Sarawak.

“The hydrogen bus internet of things (IoT) comes with high speed Wifi and H2Sarawak Apps and has the latest e-portal which consists of In-Bus entertainment and e-shopping platform,” he said.

He believed that the application is the first in Malaysia to deploy a city wide implementation of Beacons, which allows for push notifications of offers, promotions and historical landmarks.

He added that it was also the first in Sarawak to be integrated with Google Transit that gives users real time schedules of bus arrival and connecting points, adding that this would pave the way for a full integrated routes and a live schedule of Sarawak Public Transport System.

Aside from that, he said the LED monitors on the buses allows video content to be loaded remotely, the first of its kind to be implemented in Sarawak for a Public Transportation System.

“Our Hydrogen Bus can travel over 300 km and can achieve 15 round trips in the city of Kuching route in a single refill.

“The three Hydrogen Buses are equipped with GPS and live diagnostically on fuel level; speed and vital system notification can be monitored remotely,” he said.