50 Electric Buses Sanctioned for Bhubaneswar under FAME India Scheme Phase-II

New Delhi: The Department of Heavy Industry has approved the sanction of 50 electric buses for Bhubaneswar under the ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II)’ scheme to give a push to clean mobility in public transportation.

A total of 5595 electric buses have been sanctioned under the scheme to 64 Cities, State Government Entities, State Transport Undertakings (STUs)for intra-city and intercity operation for promotion of Electric Mobility in the country, an official statement said.

The Department had invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) from million-plus cities, smart cities, State/UT capitals and cities from special category states for submission of proposal for deployment of electric buses on operational cost basis.

Eight six proposals from 26 States/UTs for the deployment of 14988 e-Buses were received. After evaluation of these proposals as per EoI, on the advice of Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee (PISC) the Government sanctioned 5095 electric buses to 64 Cities / State Transport Corporations for intra-city operation, 400 electric buses for intercity operation and 100 electric buses for last mile connectivity to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

Each selected City/STUsis required to initiate the procurement process in a time bound manner for deployment of sanctioned electric buses on operational cost basis. As per EoI, buses which satisfy required localization level and technical eligibility notified under FAME India scheme phase II will be eligible for funding under FAME India scheme phase II.

These buses will run about 4 billion kilometers 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.