The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has submitted a proposal to the state urban development department for getting 100 e-buses under the PM E-bus Seva scheme.
The state government had sought details about the present infrastructure, the number of e-buses required and the routes on which these buses would operate. It had asked the civic body to submit the proposal on its own without appointing a consultant.
In a proposal, the civic body informed that it is already operating the city bus service with 250 non-EV buses on 61 routes. It needs 150 more buses to add more routes in the city.
NMC said it will deploy electric buses on all the routes, particularly on the busy routes from Nimani bus stand to Nashik Road, Bardan Phata and Symbiosis College — which have a huge rush of passengers.
The civic body officials informed that it is already constructing a special depot for electric buses with the capacity to park 100 buses at a time.
It has already identified land for the same.
“The electric bus depot will have an adequate number of charging points so that a maximum number of buses can be charged at a time. We will soon float a tender to construct the depot. The project is estimated to cost Rs 25 crore,” said Nashik Municipal Corporation officials.
Under the PM E-bus Seva scheme, the e-buses are to be procured through private agencies on their own and these agencies will operate, maintain and manage the buses for 12 years. These agencies will be paid on a per km basis.
The Centre will grant Rs 24 per km to the civic body for 12 years, while the remaining amount is to be paid by the civic body.
The tender will be floated by the Centre and it will appoint agencies on procure, operate, manage and maintain the basis for the cities selected under the PM E-bus seva scheme.
