NMC to get 150 electric buses under PM E-Bus scheme
   Date :14-Sep-2023
 
PM E-Bus scheme
 
 
Staff Reporter
Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has forwarded a proposal to Maharashtra Government for alloting 150 electric buses under the Central Govenrment’s PM E-Bus scheme. Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, had announced launch of PM E-Bus scheme where it going to procure 10,000 e-buses. The move is aimed at phasing out buses running on conventional fuel that is a major cause of pollution. The e-buses proposal was cleared by Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhary and forwarded to Urban Development Department for further processing. As per the procedure, NMC has to submit a formal proposal to State Govenrment that will then submit comprehensive demand of all cites to Central Goverment. NMC provides city transport service ‘Aapli Bus’ and at present they have a fleet of 528 buses. This includes 362 diesel buses such as 167 standard, 150 Midi and 45 mini, as well as 70 retrofitted CNG buses and 96 e-buses.
 
At present, the policy of shifting the public bus service from conventional diesel fuel to non-conventional fuel is being implemented by the Transport Department of NMC. Under this, e-buses have been included in the fleet of ‘Aapli Bus’. Apart from tackling the pollution, the NMC also going to save a lot on the fuel after switching over to electric buses. Plus the regular repair bill is also going to reduce drastically. NMC will get 150 e-buses on the basis of population (20 to 40 lakhs). In urban areas for running them on PPP model, here a private operator is going to be provided money on a per kilometre basis for a period of 10 years or till March 2037, whichever is earlier.
 
State Government is going to stand guarantee for payment to operator running city buses. Around 60 per cent of the project cost for infrastructure development of bus depots will be provided to the city for sanctioned number of e-buses till March 2027. The civic body will provide land for depot development and it will receive 100 per cent funding for electricity infrastructure from Centre by March 2027, as per criteria to be decided in consultation with the Union Ministry of Power. Before launching e-buses, cities will have to ensure adequate power/ infrastructure capacity and other requisites incorporated in the guidelines of the Centre’s PM e-Bus scheme.