The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s plan to create a fleet of 1,000 electric buses, the largest in the country and perhaps the world only after China, may not be able to materialise in its current form due to a financial roadblock, sources claim.
Rushing against time to finalise its plan revolving around the phased procurement and roll out of the fleet, for which a deadline of April 30 has been set for it, the Transport Department is confronting an elementary, but significant, dilemma at the core of the plan: finding the money for it.
“The Department has been directed to prepare a plan for the procurement of 1,000 such buses, each priced at around ₹2.5 crore, but no information about the financial outlay for the project has been communicated to it,” claimed a source adding that budgetary provisions had only been made for the procurement of 1,000 standard floor buses each by the Delhi Transport Corporation and under the cluster scheme.
Given that the total outlay for the transport and road infrastructure, combined, was set at ₹5,145 crore this fiscal, more than half of this corpus, another source pointed out, would need to be dedicated solely to the creation of the proposed 1,000-strong fleet of electric buses.
This, the source pointed out, seemed to be the only solution after the Delhi High Court, in November, put a brake on the government's proposal to use ₹400 crore out of the Rs. 700 crore Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) fund to purchase 500 electric buses and reports that the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), under the Centre, had shelved its proposal to assist state road transport undertakings (SRTUs) in subsidising the procurement of electric buses.
The sheer size of the number of vehicles on the proposed fleet, the source pointed out, was proving to be a tough task to achieve.
This, the source said, had been kept at 1,000 in Delhi despite an assessment study pointing out that ten public transport agencies across the country, combined, intended to procure a little over half the total number of buses that the Capital wanted.
“As per an assessment study conducted last year revolving around the feasibility of project, ten SRTUs had intended to procure 520 such vehicles for operation but the number was, finally, reduced to 320, in total, across the country,” said the source.
In November last year, the Delhi High Court questioned the Delhi government's move to divert funds from the ECC, composed ₹700 crore collected as green cess for bringing cars of 2,000 cc or larger engine capacity to Delhi, to buy electric buses.
This, according to the source, was followed by a communication from the DHI which had, in December last year, told the Delhi government that it would only subsidise the procurement of 40 such vehicles for Delhi like it intended to for other states.
Despite these developments, however, the plan, which was initially to roll out 100 such buses with gradual additions of 50 more in gradual phases based equally and simultaneously on their operational cost and popularity among commuters, the size of the proposed fleet was, subsequently, increased to 500 followed by a reduction to 200 and, now, has been kept at 1,000.
According to sources privy to developments in this regard, the government was, initially, exploring the possibility of even diverting funds from the financial outlay for Phase IV of the Delhi Metro for the procurement of electric buses.
“The government was exploring the possibility of utilising half of the amount allocated for the Delhi Metro's Phase IV but that plan was shelved later,” said the source.
The possibility of procuring Capital Expenditure (capex) from the ECC and Viability Gap Funding (VGF) was then explored before the government came to the realisation that diversion of funds from the ECC was not a possibility after the Delhi High Court's observation in this regard.
“But the ECC does not have enough funds given the sheer price tag of ₹2,500 crore on the project, even if one discounts the fact that funds from it are to be utilised for infrastructure projects including, among others, the construction of the eastern and western expressways,” said the source.
Apart from the fact that a consultant for the project is yet to be appointed, the other challenge in relation to the fleet includes the availability of charging points for these vehicles. Just two depots, one each at East Vinod Nagar and Bawana, which will be equipped with 11 KV sub-stations to provide charging facilities for these buses, have been proposed so far.
