New Delhi: Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemicals & Fertilizers, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha yesterday informed that the Government has announced the launch of public and shared transportation based on electric power train, through a system of Expression of Interest (EoI) issued on 31st October 2017. Under this EoI, a grant of up to Rs.105 crore per city with million plus population and special category states, was proposed to be extended by the Government of India through demand incentives in combinations of electric buses, electric 4-wheeler passenger cars and electric 3-wheelers.
The last date for receipt of proposals under this EoI was 30th November, 2017. This EoI has received tremendous response. The Department received 47 proposals from 44 cities across 21 states having requirement of 3144 E-buses, 2430 E-Four Wheeler Taxies and 21545 E-Three Wheeler Autos. After evaluation of these proposals, eleven cities were selected for funding under the present Expression of Interest as the pilot project. These include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Jammu, Guwahati.
To augment charging infrastructure for public transport, the funding for setting up of the charging infrastructure with a ceiling of Rs.15 crore per city was also proposed for the selected cities.
In a separate written reply, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya informed the House that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is in the process of launching a pilot project in the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, for setting up of the Traffic Incident Emergency Management System (TIMS), where Incident Management Contractors will be appointed at a State/Regional Office level for providing ambulances, tow-away cranes and highway surveillance vehicles across all highways in the State / Region and a Regional Command and Control Centre for monitoring and operations.
Many highways are already covered by ambulances, patrol vehicles and tow-away cranes through incident management services provided by BOT and OMT highway concessionaries. In the pilot project, tentatively 100-110 additional ambulances are planned to be provided in each State through the Incident Management Service Contactor. Bids have already been invited for providing Integrated Incident Management services across highways. The implementation is expected to take 6-9 months. On successful implementation in these two States, the program will then be scaled up to a National level.
