NEW DELHI: The housing and urban affairs ministry has prepared a plan for the implementation of a ₹18,000 crore scheme that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in last year’s budget to augment bus transport in mainly tier two and three cities
NEW DELHI: The housing and urban affairs ministry has prepared a plan for the implementation of a ₹18,000 crore scheme that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in last year’s budget to augment bus transport in mainly tier two and three cities.
The plan has been shared for interministerial consultation, said two ministry officials aware of the matter. It will be implemented as per the public-private partnership model. States will rope in private concessionaires for the bus services. The concessionaire will have to provide the buses and be responsible for their maintenance and operations.
The scheme will involve gross cost contracts, wherein fixed sums will be provided to the private concessionaires for the services for a fixed duration. “The concessionaire will be paid on a per-kilometre basis. The initial plan has been shared for inter-ministerial consultation and with other stakeholders for comments. The plan is in the initial stages. It will be finalised based on the inputs we get during the consultative process,” said one of the officials, requesting anonymity.
The scheme is aimed at improving infrastructure in small cities, which either do not have an organised public bus transport or it is inadequate. A second official said private concessionaires will be allowed to operate CNG or diesel buses.
“These will not be electric buses, as providing charging infrastructure, etc will be a challenge in these cities where basic bus transport infrastructure is either missing or inadequate. The idea of the scheme is to provide essential public bus transport services. Based on the inputs received from various stakeholders, we will finalise the scheme,” said the second official, who did not want to be named.
In January, Convergence Energy Services Ltd, under the ministry of power and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services, floated a ₹5,500 crore tender to procure 5,580 electric buses. The tender sought 5,450 single-decker and 130 double-decker e-buses for Delhi, Bengaluru, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata in the first phase.
Transport expert Amit Bhatt, executive director, WRI India, said there is a need for a national bus funding scheme to cover the deficit in public transport. He cited a WRI India study last year and said it found 585,000 buses need to operationalise in the country by 2031. Bhatt said they will include 246,000 new or additional buses. “In terms of operations, close to 5,000 crore km will be operated in urban areas where bus agencies require financial support for operating buses. Therefore, a national bus funding scheme is of utmost importance for the sustainable development of our cities. The programme should leverage private sector participation in the delivery of high-quality bus service.”
The cost of procuring 246,000 buses will be around ₹3.5 lakh crore, the study said.
Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India president Prasanna Patwardhan said huge investments were being done in developing metro corridors but just 18000 crores have been allocated for augmentation of the bus system. “This is not enough. Moreover, this scheme was announced in the last budget and it has till now not been finalised. It shows the priority of the government when it comes to improving the bus transport infrastructure.”
