Nagpur: The Central government has approved Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s proposal to acquire 40 electric buses under Phase-II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric vehicles (FAME). “As a part of subsidy for procuring the e-buses, the civic body has also received Rs3.60 crore (of the Rs14.40 crore) as first instalment,” confirmed a senior official from NMC’s transport department.
Earlier, the BJP-ruled NMC had declined to accept 100 electric buses being sponsored by the department of heavy industries and public enterprises, owing to its precarious financial condition. It had instead decided to procure only 40 buses under Phase-II of FAME.
As per the MoU with ministry of heavy industries, the central government has offered to provide Rs45 lakh, Rs55 lakh and Rs35 lakh subsidy for each midi, standard and mini bus. However, the civic body has shortlisted midi buses, the official said. For procuring the 40 midi e-buses, NMC has also shortlisted Olectra-BYD, the electric bus manufacturer in Telangana, to operate the electric buses in the city.
The midi bus procured from Olectra costs around Rs1.49 crore each. As the civic body has no funds, Olectra offered to operate the buses for NMC. “NMC will pay it Rs66.30 per km as operation cost, which will also include the capital cost of the 40 e-buses. So, NMC can provide the city bus service without investing a penny,” the official said.
The first lot of 20 e-buses will join the Aapli Bus fleet in mid-2021. The second instalment of Rs7.20 crore will be released to NMC in April 2021, while the third and final instalment will be released after all 40 e-buses are inducted.
The officer said NMC has also identified a depot for electric buses at Khapri. It will develop infrastructure required for the e-buses including 20 charging stations on its own. After 10 years on build and operate basis, the facility will be transferred to NMC.
Before lockdown, NMC used to operate almost 370 buses, including five e-buses, and spent around Rs13 crore per month. Of the Rs13 crore, the civic body could generate around Rs6 crore revenue from bus fare, while the viability gap fund was around Rs7 crore. With the induction of 40 e-buses, NMC’s monthly expenditure will increase by almost Rs85 lakh, said the officer.
Meanwhile, NMC is all set to induct a sixth electric bus in the Aapli Bus fleet. The bus arrived recently and MahaMetro has approached NMC to provide the bus to it for operating shuttle service between Nagpur airport and Airport South Metro station.