In a step which will provide a much needed boost to the public transport system in the twin-city, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) will get 100 electric buses under the central government's PM eBus Sewa scheme. The civic body is among the 14 cities in the state to be selected in the state which has been allotted a total of 1290 buses under the project.
Demanded 1340; Sanctioned 1290
The state government had placed a demand of 1340 buses including 50 extra buses for Thane, however 1290 buses have been sanctioned in adherence to the prescribed allocation format under the scheme. As per requirement, the civic administration had submitted a detailed proposal for getting 60 standard (12 meter) and 40 midi (9 meter) buses to the State Level Steering Committee (SLSC) headed by chief secretary.
The buses will be operated under the wet lease - gross cost contract (GCC) model under which buses will be owned, maintained, and driven by a private contractor who will also pay for fuel (charging) in exchange for a fixed per-km rate. A central assistance (CA) support of Rs.24 and Rs.22 per-km will be provided for standard and midi buses respectively towards operational costs for 10 years.
Govt will upstream electric charging infra & develop bus depots
The CA support for minibuses is pegged at 20 per- km. Apart from the assistance, the government will further upstream electric charging infrastructure and the development of bus depots. Under the newly introduced challenge method for pre-qualification criteria, the recipient states and cities will have to provide an undertaking in the form of a dedicated escrow account which will be replenished on a quarterly basis.
The Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) will float a unified tender for price discovery of different lots for the procurement of buses. Presently, 71 out of the 74 diesel powered buses operate on 18 routes which have an average ridership of 90,000 commuters per day as collections hover above Rs. 8.5 lakh.
Notably, six electric buses have been recently inducted into the existing fleet of MBMC’s public transport authority under the aegis of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) mooted by the central government for improving air quality in the country in mission mode. With the latest additions, the strength of the fleet has gone up to 80 buses. As the ridership is witnessing a significant surge, every passing day, the civic administration projects the figures to cross the 1.25 lakh in coming months.
