PM-eBus Sewa Scheme
Recently the Union Cabinet has approved a bus scheme “PM-eBus Sewa” for expansion of city bus operations on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Under this, 10,000 e-buses will be run. The estimated cost of the scheme will be Rs 57,613 crore, out of which Rs 20,000 crore support will be provided by the central government. The scheme will support bus operations for 10 years.
Benefit:
- Reaching the Unreached: The scheme will cover cities with a population of three lakh and above as per 2011 census, including all capitals of Union Territories, North Eastern region and hill states.
- Under this scheme priority will be given to those cities where no well organized bus service is available.
- Direct Employment Generation: Under this scheme, around 10,000 buses will be run in city bus operations, which will generate 45,000 to 55,000 direct jobs.
Two sections of the scheme:
- Expansion of city bus services under the first segment (169 cities): City bus operations will be expanded with 10,000 e-buses on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model through the approved bus scheme. The infrastructure attached to it will help for the development of depot infrastructure. In addition, it will be possible to build behind-the-meter electrical infrastructure (substations, etc.) for e-buses.
- Green Urban Mobility Initiative (GUMI) under the second segment (181 cities): The plan envisages green initiatives such as bus priority, infrastructure, multimodal interchange facilities, NCMC-based automatic fare collection system, charging infrastructure, etc. Under the plan, states or cities would be responsible for operating these bus services and paying bus operators.
Source – PIB
