Bengaluru is poised to surpass Delhi in public transport bus numbers as the union government has approved 7,000 electric buses for the city under the newly launched PM E-DRIVE scheme. This approval makes Bengaluru the city receiving the highest number of electric buses in India.
Under the scheme, Bengaluru will receive 7,000 e-buses, while Hyderabad will get 2,800. Currently, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) operates approximately 6,500 buses, including about 1,300 non-AC electric vehicles. The BMTC is also preparing to lease 320 AC electric buses soon. Delhi currently leads with over 8,000 buses, the highest among Indian cities.
Policymakers and mobility experts suggest that BMTC needs between 10,000 and 12,000 buses to meet the city’s public transport demands. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy confirmed that buses under the PM E-DRIVE scheme will be procured over three years. During this time, many older vehicles will also be retired, as per BMTC rules. A bus is required to be scrapped after it reaches 11 lakh kilometers or turns 15 years old. It is estimated that BMTC will need to retire around 10% of its fleet each year.
Even with the loss of around 2,000 buses over the next three years, the addition of 7,000 e-buses under the scheme will significantly boost BMTC’s fleet, pushing the total number of buses to over 10,000.
The PM E-DRIVE scheme, announced on September 29, 2024, includes Rs 4,391 crore in subsidies for the procurement of 14,028 e-buses across nine large cities with populations over 40 lakh. The scheme has been allocated Rs 4,000 crore in the 2025-26 union budget. Karnataka has already agreed on a payment security mechanism for the scheme. BMTC will pay bus manufacturers on a per-kilometer basis through the Gross Cost Contract (GCC) model, with the manufacturers covering most operational expenses, except for conductor salaries.
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