Govt approves 5,595 e-buses in 64 cities under FAME India's second phase

The Centre on Thursday gave nod to 5,595 electric buses (e-buses) for inter- and intra-city transportation in 64 cities, giving a thrust to last-mile connectivity and continued electric mobility push.

Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad got the highest number of buses at 300 each.

The move by the Department of Heavy Industry - to allow 64 cities, state government entities and state transport undertakings to source the e-buses under FAME India scheme phase II - will give a further push to clean mobility in public transportation, an official statement said.

The department had invited expressions of interest (EoIs) from million-plus cities, smart cities, state/UT capitals and cities from special-category states for submission of proposal for deployment of e-buses on operational cost basis.

After evaluation of these proposals in line with the EoI, on the advice of Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee, the government sanctioned 5,095 e-buses to 64 cities/state transport corporations for intra-city operation, 400 e-buses for intercity operation and 100 e-buses for last-mile connectivity to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

According to the EoI, buses which satisfy the required localisation level and technical eligibility notified under FAME II will be eligible for funding under the scheme.

These buses will run about 4 billion kilometres during their contract period and are expected to save cumulatively about 1.2 billion liters of fuel over the contract period, which will result into avoidance of 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emission.