The cities include Delhi,
Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore and Kolkata,
plus two cities – Jammu and Guwahati under special category. The nine big cities
in the list will be given subsidy for 40 buses each while Jammu and Guwahati
will get for 15 buses each. Subsidy for taxis will be given to Ahmedabad ( 20
taxis), Bangalore (100 taxis), Indore ( 50 taxis) and Kolkata (200 taxis) –
based on their demand. Bangalore will get subsidy for 500 three wheelers,
Indore for 200 and Ahmedabad for 20. This comes to a total of 390 buses, 370 taxis and 720 three wheelers.
This announcement has been
made during the second half of December,
when the Department of Heavy Industry is observing “Swachhata Pakhawada”
under Clean India Mission, according to a Press Information Bureau press note.
The selected cities are
required to finalise the tendering process and issue supply order before February
28, 2018. Through this EOI, Department of Heavy Industry is expected to spend
about Rs. 437 Crore under FAME India scheme (Phase I), which includes about Rs.
40 crores as incentives for installation of charging infrastructure.
While many Departments and
Ministries are working for promotion of electric vehicles, the Department of
Heavy Industry is the Department which is administering the scheme “Faster
Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles in India”, popularly
known as FAME India scheme since April 1, 2015. The present effort is a
significant boost to electric mobility with the aim to roll out a number of
electric buses, electric three-wheelers and electric shared cabs for
multi-modal public transport.
An Expression of Interest
(EOI) inviting proposals from million plus cities and special category states
for multimodal transport was issued by the Department of Heavy Industry on October
31, 2017. Under this EOI, additional
incentive was also proposed to augment charging infrastructure for public
transport. Last date for receipt of the proposal was November 30, 2017.
In response to this EOI,
Department of Heavy Industry received 47 proposals from 44 cities across 21
states having requirement of 3144 E-buses, 2430 E-Four Wheeler Taxies and
21545, E-Three Wheeler Autos with the total financial support of Rs 4054.6
crore sought from Government of India. After evaluation of these proposals
considering parameters like population, vehicle density, vehicular pollution,
Swachhata Abhiyan ranking, coverage under Smart City programme, the available
financial outlay under Phase 1 of FAME India scheme etc, the above
cities were selected for funding under the present Expression of Interest
as the pilot project for Multi-Modal Electric Public Transport under FAME India
scheme of the Government.
Source: PIB