Centre sanctions 80 electric buses for Chandigarh

In a big push to electric mobility in the city, the central government on Friday sanctioned 80 electric buses for the city under Phase-2 of the FAME India Scheme.

Under the scheme, the central government will provide a Rs 50-lakh subsidy for each bus to the seller.

“Chandigarh was initially not included in this phase. But, UT administrator VPS Badnore wrote to the Centre with a request to include it. The transport department also followed this up with the government,” said Uma Shankar Gupta, director, transport, UT.

The buses will give a major fillip to administration’s plan to replace all ordinary buses with electric buses. The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking has around 400 buses in its fleet, and nearly half of these are nearing the completion of their operational life.

Notably, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent revenue loss, the administration last month had stalled the purchase of 40 electric buses even after floating a tender.

The transport department had planned to get the buses running by September. UT had decided to purchase the buses in June 2019 after the Union government refused to finance them.

“We will have to study the parameters of the scheme after we receive a formal letter from the government. We will see whether we can proceed with the tenders for the 40 buses,” said Gupta.