Country To Get Fully Electric Public Transport System

Union Minister Anant Geete emphasized that there is a need to increase incentives to promote e-mobility.  He said that the Centre is targeting a fully electric fleet for public transport, including buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws under the second phase of FAME India scheme. The phase I of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India (FAME India) was launched by the government in 2015 which will expire on March 31, 2018. Thereafter the second phase will be launched in which the government is committed to making the public transport system fully electric. Geete asserted that priority will be given to making India’s public transport system 100 percent electric as it will help reduce pollution to a great extent.Geete was speaking at a conference at the launch of multi-modal transport based on electric powertrain by The Department of Heavy Industry. The Department had issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) inviting proposals from million-plus cities and special category states for multi-modal transport for which many proposals were received. After evaluating the proposals, 11 cities were selected for funding under the present EoI as the pilot project for multi-modal electric public transport under the FAME India scheme of the government.The selected cities include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Jammu and Guwahati.