 "e-bus, Electric bus")
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the Rs 57,613 crore PM-eBus Sewa initiative to augment the use of electric buses in 169 cities.
Anurag Thakur, Union minister, sports, youth affairs and information and broadcasting, while announcing the Cabinet decision, said: “A total of Rs 57,613 crore will be spent to get around 10,000 new electric buses.”
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The scheme will augment city bus operations, under which priority will be given to cities having no organised bus service.
Out of the Rs 57,613 crore outlined for the scheme, support of Rs 20,000 crore will be provided by the Centre, the Cabinet statement reads.
The scheme will cover cities with 300,000 and above population, according to Census 2011.
These include all the capital cities of Union Territories (UTs), north eastern and hill states. The e-buses will be provided under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode for 10 years.
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A total of 181 cities will also be supported for development of charging infrastructure under the Green Urban Mobility Initiatives.
The move aims to help the Centre’s plan to deploy 50,000 e-buses under the National Electric Bus Program and achieve 40 per cent e-bus penetration by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2070.
The Cabinet note did not provide any clarification on the nodal ministry for the scheme. However, senior government officials said that it is likely to come under the purview of the ministry of housing and urban affairs.
As the scheme is aimed to provide buses to cities with a population of more than 300,000, it is not likely to get benefits under the Centre’s flagship electric vehicles (EV) promotion scheme — Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME-II). The scheme provides incentives to only nine cities with a population of over four million each.
