New Delhi: The Delhi government has signed an agreement with Ashok Leyland’s EV arm Switch Mobility for 950 low floor 12 meter electric buses.
“We have issued the Letter of Intent for the company. The contract is for supplying the first lot, later we will sign a contract for the balance,” Asish Kundra, principal secretary and commissioner of transport for the Delhi Government, told ETAuto.
“By 2025, we plan to have about 8000 e-buses, which will account for 80% of the overall e-bus fleet. In the next 4-5 years, it will reach 100% electric fleet,” he said.
In August this year, the central government rolled out the PM e-bus sewa scheme to deploy 10,000 e-buses in 169 Tier-2,3 cities. This is based on the PPP (public-private partnership) model. The scheme will have an estimated cost of INR 57,613 crore, of which INR 20,000 crore will be provided by the central government and the remaining will be borne by the states.
The e-buses will be made available in cities with a population between three lakh and 40 lakh. The scheme will support bus operations for 10 years.
They will operate on a gross cost contract (GCC) model, which involves e-bus manufacturers to provide electric buses on a lease basis, with payment determined per kilometre.
The Delhi government on Wednesday invited bids for deploying 3000 electric high speed and low speed scooters and e-cycles for the first and the last mile connectivity to metro and bus stations in Dwarka Sun City.
“In areas like Dwarka, we have started a pilot project. Depending on its acceptance, we will plan on launching this in other parts of the city,” Kundra said.
The government is going for a multimodal approach. Along with inviting bids for Dwarka sun city, it has pushed partnership of Delhi Metro with players like Sun Mobility, Mahindra Electric, and Etrio Motors, he added.
While it sees the three-wheeler goods segment soon transitioning towards 100% electric, the passenger category may take some time. “For three wheeler passengers, we have to work with auto rickshaw associations.”
Last year, about 66% of goods three wheelers registered in Delhi were electric.
Recently, Kundra also stated that the Delhi EV Policy 2.0 will be focussed on enhancing the charging infrastructure and expanding the financing basket for rolling out purchase incentives.
The EV Policy expired on August 8, 2023 and the Delhi government has extended the Delhi EV Policy, 2020.
