India announces 5-year plan to deploy 100,000 electric buses

According to a report from The Economic Times, the Indian government plans to launch the ‘Bharat Urban Megabus Mission’ in 2025 with a goal of deploying 100,000 electric buses in cities with a population of more than 1 million people by March 2030. India has approximately 65 million-plus cities and last month, SBI published a research report indicating the number would grow to 75-80 soon.

India aims to encourage people to rely more on public transport rather than private vehicles, a shift that could alleviate issues like pollution and congestion. The government wants public transport to start accounting for 60% of all motorised trips by 2030 and grow that figure to 80% by 2036. It wants non-motorised trips (cycling and walking) to make up at least 50% of all urban trips by 2030.

The Bharat Urban Megabus Mission will entail an investment of 1.75 lakh crore Indian rupees (approximately 19.24 billion euros). The government has earmarked 80,000 crore Indian rupees (approximately 8.8 billion euros) for viability gap funding for electric bus operations for five years and 45,000 crore Indian rupees (approximately 5.0 billion euros) to support related infrastructure, such as bus stops, terminals, and depots. It will allocate a part of the fund to developing more than 5,000 km of walkways and cycling paths.

“The aim is to make public transport the preferred mode of transport and walking and cycling attractive for everyone,” a senior official from the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs told The Economic Times. The government wants to reduce air pollution and improve public health with this mission, he added. It is also planning to cut the Goods and Services Tax on bicycles costing INR 10,000 or lower (approximately 110 euros or lower) from 12% to 5%, the Press Trust of India said in a recent report.

In related news, India’s Ministry of Heavy Industries launched the PM E-Drive scheme to promote electric buses and other EVs on 1 October. The government agency is giving state transport undertakings and public transport agencies a subsidy of 4,391 crore Indian rupees (approximately 483 million euros) to help them procure 14,028 electric buses by March 2026. It offers a uniform subsidy of 10,000 Indian rupees (approximately 110 euros) per kWh on models with an ex-factory price of less than 2 crore Indian rupees (approximately 220,000 euros).

economictimes.indiatimes.com (original paywalled report),
economictimes.indiatimes.com (free copy published later on the auto division of ET), pib.gov.in, sbi.co.in, ptinews.com, heavyindustries.gov.in (PDF)