No proposal from Centre to invest in e-bus manufacturing

The government has no proposal to invest in manufacturing of electric buses as automobile is a deregulated sector wherein both private and public sectors are free to invest, Parliament was informed Wednesday.

In reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Heavy Industries Babul Supriyo said 100 per cent FDI by automatic route is permitted in the automobile sector.

"There is no proposal from the government to invest in manufacturing of e-buses," he said.

"Automobile sector is in deregulated sector and both private and public sectors are free to carry out investment in the sector, including for manufacturing of electric vehicles and e-buses," Supriyo said.

He further said the Department of Heavy Industries has so far sanctioned 455 electric buses for nine cities in a pilot scheme launched on October 31, 2017, which received interest from 44 cities seeking 3,144 e-buses.

Total outlay for Phase-I of the FAME-India scheme has been enhanced from Rs 795 crore to Rs 895 crore, he said.

The second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME-India) scheme proposes to give a push to electric vehicles in public transport and seeks to encourage their adoption by way of market creation and demand aggregation.