New Delhi, Oct 28 (KNN) The Union housing and urban affairs ministry (MoHUA) is expected to release the initial batch of tenders for 3,000 electric buses as part of the newly introduced 'PM-ebus Sewa Scheme' in the coming week.

The scheme, cleared by the Union cabinet in August this year, aims to induct 10,000 electric buses in cities that lack organised public bus service.

Manoj Joshi, the secretary for the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Friday said the states have been given a month to send their proposals.

 “The states are working on it and the tender will be out by next week,” he told reporters at a press conference for the inauguration of 16th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference cum Expo 2023 inaugurated by Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

Joshi said that a tender for another 2,000 buses will be floated for Uttar Pradesh alone with some modifications to this scheme. The details for the same are still being deliberated.

The 'PM-ebus Sewa' initiative aims to introduce 10,000 electric buses in 169 cities through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, with additional focus on infrastructure development, including bus depots and power infrastructure.

Besides, the Union government would help states set up bus priority infrastructure, multimodal interchange facilities, the national common mobility card-based automatic fare collection system and charging infrastructure under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI).

The scheme is estimated to cost Rs.57,613 crore, out of which the Central government will provide support of Rs.20,000 crore. The Scheme will support bus operations for ten years.

(KNN Bureau)