Govt Spends Rs 175 Cr for Purchase of Heavy Electric Vehicles

The Government of India has spent Rs 175 crore for the purchase of electric buses under the second phase of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises said in a notification that, the expenditure on purchase of these electric buses (e-buses) is being borne by the Department of Heavy Industries itself.

Under the second phase of FAME India scheme, the Government has sanctioned 5,095 e-buses for intra-city operation in sixty four cities / State Transport Corporations (STCs).

Besides, four hundred e-buses were sanctioned by the government for the inter-city operation and hundred e-buses were sanctioned for the last mile connectivity to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

The details were provided by Prakash Javadekar, who is handling the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

However, the minister also informed Lok Sabha about the bifurcation of electric buses allotted for the different cities of the Andhra Pradesh state.

Out of the total 350 electric buses allocated for the state of Andhra Pradesh, a maximum of hundred e-buses were allocated for Visakhapatnam city.

However, fifty each electric bus was allocated for other cities including Vijayawada, Amravati, Tirupati and Kakinada.

The government has also allocated fifty e-buses to Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) for its inter-city operations, the minister told.

Javadekar also informed that, the benefit of incentives to buyers of mild hybrid vehicles under FAME India scheme was withdrawn w.e.f. April 01, 2017 based on the third party evaluation of first phase of the scheme.

He further added that, under FAME India Scheme, about 2.85 lakh buyers of electric/hybrid vehicles (xEVs) have been supported by the subsidy of Rs 360 crore.