As the government steps up efforts to incentivise the adoption of electric buses to promote green mobility and reduce emissions, Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy has assured that 10,900 e-buses will be deployed across key Indian metros under the PM E-DRIVE scheme.

The minister chaired a meeting yesterday on the rollout of electric buses under the scheme.

Following detailed deliberations, the ministry of heavy industries has assured that approximately 4,500 electric buses will be provided to Bengaluru, 2,000 to Hyderabad, 2,800 to Delhi, 1,000 to Ahmedabad and 600 to Surat under the current phase of the PM E-DRIVE scheme, according to an official statement.

“With close coordination between the Centre and states like Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi and Gujarat, we are determined to deliver on the PM E-DRIVE promise,” Kumaraswamy said.

In September last year, the government launched, replacing the erstwhile Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme.

The scheme, with an outlay of INR 10,900 Cr, aims to promote EVs in the country by offering subsidies.

Under the scheme, the government plans to support 24.79 Lakh E2Ws, 3.16 Lakh E3Ws and 14,028 electric buses.

This also comes at a time when the Centre is reportedly considering reducing the per unit subsidy for electric buses under the PM E-DRIVE scheme without raising the budgetary allocation.

Earlier, an ET report said that cities, including Hyderabad, Surat, Bengaluru and Pune have of electric buses.

So far, the government has reportedly approved Bengaluru’s demand for 7,000 e-buses and Hyderabad’s demand for 2,800 such buses.

This comes close on the heels of the union government planning to , which will feature real-time slot booking (likely for charging), payment integration, charger availability status and progress dashboards for tracking national deployment under the PM E-DRIVE scheme.

Nearly a month ago, reports surfaced that the ministry of heavy industries is planning for EV subsidy claims from 40 days to just five days, to streamline verification steps, while also addressing technical bottlenecks.

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