Working towards government's electric mobility dream, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Anant Geete has announced that the Central Government will provide Rs 437 crore subsidy to 11 cities under the Faster Adoption and manufacturing of Electric Vehice (FAME) scheme in India. The move will see launch of electric buses, taxis and three-wheelers in 11 cities. The cities include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore and Kolkata, plus two cities – Jammu and Guwahati under special category.
The nine big cities in the list will be given subsidy for 40 buses each while Jammu and Guwahati will get for 15 buses each. Subsidy for taxis will be given to Ahmedabad ( 20 taxis), Bangalore (100 taxis), Indore ( 50 taxis) and Kolkata (200 taxis) – based on their demand. Bangalore will get subsidy for 500 three wheelers, Indore for 200 and Ahmedabad for 20. This comes to a total of 390 buses, 370 taxis and 720 three wheelers. This move will also encourage OEMs to invest more on the electric front. Earlier in 2017, Government owned Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) had floated a tender to procure 10,000 electric cars which was bagged by Tata Motors and Mahindra.
This announcement has been made during the second half of December, when the Department of Heavy Industry is observing “Swachhata Pakhawada” under Clean India Mission.
The selected cities are required to finalize the tendering process and issue supply order before 28th February 2018. Through this EOI, Department of Heavy Industry is expected to spend about Rs. 437 Crore under FAME India scheme (Phase I), which includes about Rs. 40 crores as incentives for installation of charging infrastructure.
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While many Departments and Ministries are working for promotion of electric vehicles, the Department of Heavy Industry is the Department which is administering the scheme “Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles in India”, popularly known as FAME India that was first launched in 01st April 2015. The present effort is a significant boost to electric mobility with the aim to roll out a number of electric buses, electric three-wheelers and electric shared cabs for multi-modal public transport.
An Expression of Interest (EOI) inviting proposals from million plus cities and special category states for multimodal transport was issued by the Department of Heavy Industry on 31st October 2017. Under this EOI, additional incentive was also proposed to augment charging infrastructure for public transport. Last date for receipt of the proposal was 30th November 2017.
In response to this EOI, Department of Heavy Industry has received 47 proposals from 44 cities across 21 states having requirement of 3144 E-buses, 2430 E-Four Wheeler Taxies and 21545, E-Three Wheeler Autos with the total financial support of 4054.6 crores sought from Government of India.
After evaluation of these proposals considering parameters like population, vehicle density, vehicular pollution, Swachhata Abhiyan ranking, coverage under Smart City programme, the available financial outlay under Phase 1 of FAME India scheme etc, the above cities were selected for funding under the present Expression of Interest as the pilot project for Multi-Modal Electric Public Transport under FAME India scheme of the Government.
