Govt to deploy 10,000 AC e-buses in 116 cities by 2027

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that 10,000 air-conditioned electric buses will be provided to 116 cities across 26 states and Union Territories by the end of 2027 under the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme.

He also announced the launch of a new scheme to supply an additional 35,000 e-buses once the current scheme ends in 2027.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the PM-eBus Sewa scheme on August 16, 2023, to improve mobility in smaller cities and combat rising pollution. Since states were unable to provide adequate financing for e-buses on their own, an initial target of 10,000 buses was set under the scheme for towns with populations between 3 lakh and 40 lakh.

Under the scheme, a total of 116 cities across 26 states/UTs have been selected to receive buses under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. This is subject to the states' participation in the PM-eBus Sewa Payment Security Mechanism (PSM), the minister said.

He added that a tranche of 225 buses was delivered last month, tenders have been finalized, and agreements for 6,500 buses have already been signed. More buses will be delivered to states as soon as they finalize their agreements. The distribution of 10,000 buses under the scheme is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

Second Scheme

Once the distribution of the first 10,000 buses is completed by 2027 under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme, a second scheme will be launched to supply an additional 35,000 e-buses to states.

"We want to extend the benefits of this scheme to more and more cities and support the states, as it also helps reduce pollution," the Minister said.

A Sahaj ticket and a National Common Mobility Card will be introduced, which can be used across these e-buses and other modes of transport. This infrastructure is primarily aimed at helping tier-2 and tier-3 cities, he emphasized.

The modalities of the second scheme are yet to be finalized, and reforms based on the experience of the first scheme will be incorporated into the new one.

In the current scheme, the minister explained that the government has created clusters of twin cities and nearby towns to include them under the PM-eBus scheme benefits, even if they do not individually meet the population criteria.