Centre shortlists 11 cities for electric vehicle-based public transportation

The centre has shortlisted 11 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Jammu and Guwahati, for a pilot project of multi-modal electric transport system under FAME India.

Minister of heavy industries and public enterprises Anant Geete on Wednesday said the government would be providing Rs437 crore subsidy to 11 cities under FAME India, for launching electric buses, taxis and three-wheelers.

The scheme, 'Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehciles in India', popularly known as FAME India scheme has been in operation since 1 April 2015.

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, a ministry release stated.

The announcement was made during the second half of December, as part of the department of heavy industry's `Swachhata Pakhawada' programme under Clean India Mission. 

The selected cities are required to finalise the tendering process and issue supply order before 28 February 2018.

The department of heavy industry is expected to spend about Rs437 crore under FAME India scheme (Phase I), which includes about Rs40 crore as incentives for installation of charging infrastructure. 

The Department of Heavy Industry has been administering the FAME India scheme since 1 April 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.

The department had, on 31 October 2017, invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from thousands of cities and special category states for multimodal transport , offering additional incentive to augment charging infrastructure for public transport. Last date for receipt of the proposal was 30 November 2017.

The Department of Heavy Industry received 47 proposals from 44 cities across 21 states having requirement of 3,144 E-buses, 2,430 E-four wheeler taxies and 21,545,  E-three wheeler autos with the total financial support of 4,054.6 crore sought from the centre. 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 11 cities were selected for funding under the present pilot project for Multi-Modal Electric Public Transport.