Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that the Ministry has floated tenders for procuring buses under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme and the bidding process would be completed by the end of this month.
The PM-eBus Sewa scheme was launched on August 16, 2023 with the aim of augmenting bus operations by deploying 10,000 electric buses in cities, which do not have any bus service. An e-bus is any bus whose propulsion and accessory systems are powered exclusively by a zero-emissions electricity source.
The scheme would be implemented in two segments. While in 169 cities, 10,000 e-buses will be deployed using public-private partnership (PPP) model, in 181 other cities, infrastructure will be upgraded under the green urban mobility initiatives.
“Tenders have been floated to procure buses and by the end of January, the bidding will be completed,” Mr. Puri said at a press conference here. The buses are in three different sizes — 7 metre, 9 metre and 12 metre.
Keeping the focus on urban mobility, he said that metro rail systems across the country have crossed the landmark one crore daily ridership with Delhi Metro itself witnessing more than 72 lakh passengers per day in August 2023.
Housing sector
The Minister also said that since 2014 there has been exceptional improvement as far as the housing sector was concerned. “Since 2014, ₹18.07 lakh crore have been invested in urban development. This is a staggering 12-fold increase in investments compared to 2004-14,” the Minister added.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, around two lakh houses were being handed over to the beneficiaries each month and till now, 118.63 lakh houses have been approved under the flagship scheme. This was around nine times more than the earlier 13.46 lakh houses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNRUM).
He further said that under PM SVANidhi, a micro-credit scheme for urban street vendors, a total of 58.89 lakh beneficiaries have been given loans.
The PM SVANidhi scheme was launched during the COVID pandemic to provide hand-holding support to street vendors. It facilitates a working capital collateral free loan of ₹10,000, with subsequent loans of ₹20,000 and ₹50,000 with 7% interest subsidy.
Replying to a question on non-implementation of several Central schemes by Opposition-ruled states, Mr. Puri said these particular State governments want to depict the Central projects as their own projects.
