Million e-bus plan to ride on local mfg; final call by PMO

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will take the final decision on a plan to replace a million diesel-run buses on Indian roads with electric options over the next decade through subsidies and other regulatory interventions, people aware of the matter said.

- Nehal Chaliawala & Mihir Mishra

The 10-year scheme may also include provisions to encourage local e-bus manufacturing, bring down goods and services tax (GST) rate on components and support the creation of charging infrastructure.

The move has the potential to crack open the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem beyond buses as well, cut down India's oil import bill and contribute significantly to a reduction in vehicular emissions.

The plan is a widened version of an earlier proposal by the heavy industries ministry to replace 800,000 combustion-engine buses with electric options. That has now been scaled up following inputs from other ministries.

Three ministries-heavy industries, commerce and industry, and housing and urban poverty alleviation-are in the process of submitting a formal proposal to the PMO, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.

Queries sent to the ministries remained unanswered.

For context, there are about 2.3 million diesel and CNGrun buses on Indian roads today, according to industry estimates. Comparatively, only around 6,500 electric buses ply, as per vehicle registration data, a bulk of which were sold between 2019 and 2023. In the same period, 152,173 diesel and 15,163 CNG buses were sold.