The Central Government has cleared the way for 5,595 electric buses for inter- and intra-city transportation in 64 cities. The move is expected to give a boost to the government’s initiative on giving a thrust to last-mile connectivity and continued pressing for electric mobility. Among the major cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad got the highest number of buses at 300 each.
Invitations for Expressions of Interest have been called from smart cities, state/UT capitals and cities from special-category states for submission of proposal for deployment of e-buses on operational cost basis. According to the EoI, buses which satisfy the required localisation level and technical eligibility notified under FAME II will be eligible for funding under the scheme.
These buses will run about four billion kilometres during their contract period and are expected to save cumulatively about 1.2 billion liters of fuel over the contract period, which will result into avoidance of 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emission.
