PM e-Bus Sewa Scheme

• The Union government has granted an extension to the procurement deadline for the initial batch of 3,600 electric buses (e-buses) under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme, setting the new cutoff date to January 31.

ABOUT THE SCHEME

• The ambitious PM-eBus Sewa scheme, which was announced on August 16, seeks to introduce 10,000 e-buses across 169 cities.
• This will be done through a 10-year public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is overseeing this endeavour.
• While the scheme has a total budget of Rs 57,613 crore.
  • Of this, Rs 20,000 crore will be allocated from the central government’s budget.
  • The rest will be secured through contributions from various state governments.
• Distinguishing itself from FAME-II, the PM-eBus Sewa initiative empowers state governments to deploy electric buses in cities with a population of 300,000.
  • But FAME-II focuses on deployment of e-buses in only nine cities with a population of over four million.
• There are two segments of the scheme
  • Augmenting the city bus services and Associated Infrastructure: Under this segment, the scheme will augment city electric bus operations by extending Central Assistance (CA) for 10,000 electric bus operation on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, bus depots and behind-the-meter power infrastructure.
  • Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI): Under this segment, the scheme will support the implementation of GUMI projects for complementing bus services and demonstrating a reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in urban areas.