JOIN USCentre eyes electric future for public transport
Thousands of highly polluting diesel buses in state road transport corporations could be replaced by electric vehicles as the Centre eyes a "decarbonised" future.
A roadmap for this ambitious initiative will be prepared by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Ministry of Heavy Industries. But it won't be cheap.
In the PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan review meeting held in New Delhi recently, it was decided that policy changes will be made, if required, to accelerate decarbonisation of the public transport system, said an official in the Road Transport Ministry.
According to the Road Transport Ministry, at present, 56 state road transport undertakings in the country held a total of 1,49,095 buses, of which 1,33,770 buses were operated, implying an average fleet utilisation of 89.72 per cent.
To push electrification of the public transport system, the Centre plans to procure 50,000 electric buses with an investment of $10 billion under the National e-Bus Programme.
The programme also envisions to aggregate demand, support state transport undertakings to integrate electric buses into their operations, and work with states and DISCOMs to support the creation of charging infrastructure at their depots.
These 50,000 buses will replace existing diesel-run buses, said the official.
The Ministry of Road Transport is in touch with states and pushing them to procure electric buses by replacing existing fleets in state-run road transport corporations, said the official.
The Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited under the Power Ministry, is mandated by the Niti Aayog to procure e-buses.
CESL recently floated a tender under the National Electric Bus Programme for 4,675 e-Buses for Rs 5,000 crore. This was the third tender for electric buses in less than 15 months, with a cumulative total of 16,590 e-Buses across the country, equivalent to 33 per cent of the target given to CESL.
In 2015, the Centre also launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME India), in which over 425 electric hybrid buses were supplied to various states.
Under the FAME II scheme of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI), various state governments placed supply orders for 3,538 e-Buses. Out of this, a total of 1,716 electric buses have been deployed as of January 2, 2023, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Heavy Industries said recently.