New Delhi: The Union Government has informed Parliament that no electric buses have been deployed in Telangana so far under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme, as the required depot and power infrastructure has not yet been completed.

Replying to a question by MP Anil Kumar Yadav Mandadi in the Lok Sabha on the deployment of e-buses in major cities of Telangana, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu said that the scheme was launched to support electric bus operations in urban areas across the country.

Quoting the official reply, the Minister said:

“PM-eBus Sewa” launched on 16th August 2023, which aims to augment city bus operations in urban areas with Central Assistance (CA) of Rs.20,000 crore for deploying 10,000 electric buses on PPP model. Cities and clusters of adjoining small statutory towns with the population size between 3–40 lakhs and other State/UT Capitals including Hilly capitals cities, NER State capital cities and UT capital cities with less than 3 lakh population as per Census 2011 are eligible to participate in the Scheme.

He further stated:

Under the scheme, proposal for 151 e-buses has been sanctioned for two cities of State of Telangana namely Nizamabad (51) and Warangal (100). At this stage, funds allocation is dependent on submission of associated infrastructure proposals through State Level Steering Committee (SLSC) and approval by Central Sanctioning and Steering Committee (CSSC). However, no proposal for development of associated infrastructure has been received from the State of Telangana so far.

The reply added:

No buses have been deployed in Telangana, so far, as it is subject to the completion of Civil depot infrastructure and Power infrastructure required for deployment/operation of e-Buses.

According to the Government, deployment of the sanctioned buses will begin only after the State submits the required infrastructure proposals and completes depot and power facilities. DeshBharat