The State government told the Legislative Council on Wednesday that 11 cities in the State have qualified to introduce electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme.
The cities are Mysuru, Mangaluru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Hubballi, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Ballari, and Vijayapura.
Total demand
While replying to a starred question by member K.A. Thippeswamy during the Question Hour, Minister for Transport and Muzrai Ramalinga Reddy said that the three State-owned transport corporations under whose jurisdiction the cities exist have together submitted a demand for 795 e-buses under the scheme.
Of them the KSRTC has submitted a demand for 350 buses as 100 buses each for Mysuru and Mangaluru and 50 buses each for Davangere, Shivamogga and Tumakuru.
The NWKRTC has demanded 210 buses as 100 buses for Belagavi and 110 buses together for Hubballi-Dharwad. The KKRTC wants 235 buses as 100 buses for Kalaburagi, 55 buses for Bellari and 80 buses for Vijayapura, the Minister said adding that the proposals received by the corporations are under review.
Mr. Reddy said that as per the Union government guidelines, BMTC is not eligible to introduce buses under the same scheme.
Mobility infrastructure
As per the Union government, the scheme has been introduced to boost India’s electric mobility infrastructure. The scheme provides support for the deployment of 10,000 electric buses in 169 cities in the country through a Central outlay of ₹ 20,000 crores, on public-private partnership model. The scheme would have an estimated cost of ₹ 57,613 crore, out of which support of ₹ 20,000 crore will be provided by the Union government.
The scheme will support bus operations for 10 years. The scheme will cover cities of three lakh and above population as per census 2011 including all the capital cities of Union Territories, North Eastern Region and hill States. Under this scheme, priority will be given to cities having no organized bus service.
