AGARTALA, Aug 9 (TIWN): The Department of Heavy Industry has approved the sanction of 5595 electric buses to 64 Cities / State Govt. Entities / STUs for intra-city and intercity operation under FAME India scheme phase II as per details annexed. In a major development at least 50 buses were allocated for Tripura’s capital city Agartala.

Department of Heavy Industry had invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) from millionplus cities, smart cities, State/UT capitals and cities from special category states for submission of proposal for deployment of Electric Buses on operational cost basis, said an official statement.

In response thereof, 86 proposals from 26 States/UTs for the deployment of 14988 e-Buses were received. After evaluation of these proposals as per EoI, on the advice of Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee (PISC) the Government sanctioned 5095 electric buses to 64 Cities / State Transport Corporations for intra-city operation; 400 electric buses for intercity operation and 100 electric buses for last mile connectivity to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

Each selected City/State Transport Undertakings as per the list annexed are now required to initiate the procurement process in a time bound manner for deployment of sanctioned electric buses on operational cost basis.

As per EoI, buses which satisfy required localization level and technical eligibility notified under FAME India Scheme Phase II will only be eligible for funding under FAME India scheme Phase II.

These buses will run about 4 billion Kilometer during their contract period and are expected to save cumulatively about 1.2 billion liters of fuel over the contract period, which will result into avoidance of 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emission.