The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the “PM-eBus Sewa” scheme for augmenting city bus operations across the country by inducting 10,000 e-buses on PPP model.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the media that the scheme will improve public transport in cities and be in line with India’s objectives concerning climate change.

The scheme will have an estimated cost of Rs 57,613 crore, out of which a support of Rs 20,000 crore will be provided by the Central government. It will support bus operations for 10 years, Mr Thakur said.

The scheme will cover cities with three lakh and above population as per census 2011, including all Capital cities of Union Territories, North Eastern Region and Hill States. The priority will be given to cities having no organized bus service. It will generate 45,000 to 55,000 direct jobs through deployment of the 10,000 buses in the city bus operations. The scheme will have two segments.

Segment A will cover augmenting the city bus services in 169 cities. This will be done with the deployment of the 10,000 e-buses on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

The associated infrastructure will provide support for development/up-gradation of depot infrastructure; and creation of behind-the-meter power infrastructure (substation, etc.) for e-buses.

Segment B will cover Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI) in 181 cities. The scheme envisages green initiatives like bus priority, infrastructure, multi-modal interchange facilities, NCMC-based Automated Fare Collection Systems, and charging infrastructure.

Under the scheme, states/cities shall be responsible for running the bus services and making payments to the bus operators. The Central Government will support these bus operations by providing subsidy to the extent specified in the proposed scheme.

The scheme will promote e-mobility and provide full support for behind-the-meter power infrastructure. Cities will be supported for development of charging infrastructure under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives.

The support to bus priority infrastructure shall not only accelerate the proliferation of state-of-the-art, energy efficient electric buses but also foster innovation in the e-mobility sector as well as development of resilient supply chain for electric vehicles.

This scheme will bring in economies of scale for procurement of electric buses through aggregation for e-buses. The adoption of Electric mobility will reduce noise and air pollution and curb carbon emission, while there will be modal shift due to increased share of bus-based public transportation, leading lead to GHG reduction.