Around 100 electric buses will be introduced on the roads of Bhopal within a year as part of the PM e-Bus Sewa scheme.
Besides the state capital, 150 e-buses would run in Indore, 100 in Jabalpur, 32 in Sagar and 30 each in Gwalior and Ujjain. Ujjain and Gwalior will also get 70 and 40 7m electric buses respectively.
The city bus service in Bhopal is diesel-driven. Unlike Indore, CNG in public transport was not introduced in the state capital. Last year, through international funding, CNG vehicles were introduced in Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) as garbage collection vehicles.
Low on emissions, electric buses will be operated by contractors. It is a departure from the existing Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL) model. According to sources, the bus contractors will also have to develop allied electric and civil infrastructure. e-Buses are being centrally procured by the public sector undertaking, Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL).
Assured km per month for 7m electric buses is 4800km, while for 9m buses, 5400km are assured per month.
The electric buses will get a grant support of INR 22 per km. e-Buses are expected to bring financial sustainability for public transport operators like BCLL. As of now, BCLL needs to double its earnings to have a no-profit no-loss operation.
According to estimates, the revenue collection of BCLL is about INR 20 to INR 25 per km, whereas the cost of operation of diesel buses is about INR 40 per km. Currently, the state govt does not offer any viability gap funding. Neighbouring states have a conditional grant of INR 5 per km, according to experts.
