LUCKNOW: The Centre has approved Uttar Pradesh’s proposal to operate 600 electric buses in eleven cities to boost urban transport and ply as city buses.
After Maharashtra, which got the Centre’s approval to operate 725 electric buses in six cities, UP has got the second highest allocation of E-buses under the FAME-2 scheme of the Centre.
UP urban transport directorate would float tenders and invite bids on August 29.
“It would take a year before we start operating the buses, because setting up the infrastructure — like providing charging facilities in each of these eleven cities — would take time,” said UP urban transport director Ajit Singh.
Lucknow has got a charging shed at Dubagga where at least 24 buses can be charged at a time. In other cities, land has been identified.
At least four of these eleven cities — Aligarh, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Bareilly — never had any city buses operating. Besides, unauthorised vehicles operating as city transport are rampant in these cities.
Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra, Ghaziabad, Varanasi and Mathura-Vrindavan are the other cities that would benefit.
The Union government is promoting operation of electric buses through its FAME (Faster Adoption And Manufacture of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles) scheme.
Under FAME-II the Centre will provide states with a Rs 45 lakh subsidy per electric bus. “Subsidy will be provided to hire buses,” said the official. The state will not purchase the electric buses.
Electric buses will be operated through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). Private firms will operate the buses for a ten-year period as UPSRTC will hire the buses under Gross Cost Contract (GCC) model.
In total, UP will have 640 electric buses. Forty buses have been purchased under FAME-1 scheme for operation in Lucknow.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
