3 min readPuneJan 31, 2021 11:31 PM IST
First published on: Jan 31, 2021 at 11:31 PM IST
The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) is set to have 500 more electric buses in its fleet soon.
The body has placed two orders for the supply of 500 electric buses with Secunderabad-based Olectra Greentech, the BSE-listed manufacturer of electric buses, and its sister concern, Evey Trans. As of now, PMPML has 150 electric buses running on city roads.
Olectra confirmed that it has received a letter of award from the PMPML for the supply of 500 electric buses. “The value of the contract is Rs 900 crore. PMPML is not purchasing the buses from us, we will own and operate the buses under OPEX (operational expenditure) model for a period of 12 years,” said Sharat Chandra, CFO at Olectra Greentech.
The order has been implemented under the FAME-II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme.
Evey Trans will procure these electric buses from Olectra Greentech and deliver them within seven months. The maintenance of these buses will also be undertaken by the company during the contract period.
Anant Waghmare, PMPML chief engineer, confirmed that the body has placed an order for supply of 500 buses with Olectra Greentech. “They supplied us 150 buses two years back. We have asked for 150 electric buses first and then 350 buses. The orders were placed in the last one month or so,” he said.
Olectra Greentech competes with Tata Motors, JBM and PMI-Foton for business in the country.
“At present, we have an order of 1,250 electric buses to deliver across Indian cities over the next 12-15 months,” Chandra said. With that, the total number of e-bases running on the Indian roads would be over 1,500 plus units, he added.
“Olectra is already operating 150 buses in Pune and with this new order, the fleet size will be 650 electric buses, which is the highest in the country,” Chandra said.
The company also operates these eco-friendly buses in the garden city and Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore, he pointed out.
At present, Olectra company’s nine-metre and 12-meter buses, costing anywhere between Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 1.75 crore, are already running in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Himachal Pradesh, Surat, Silvassa and Kerala. Subsidies on these buses range from Rs 45 lakh to Rs 55 lakh, or 40 per cent of the cost of the bus.
The Rs 10,000-crore FAME II scheme, announced by the Centre in 2019, will mainly focus on supporting the electrification of public and shared transportation. It aims to support approximately 7,000 e-buses, five lakh e-three-wheelers, 55,000 e-four-wheeler passenger cars and 10 lakh e-two-wheelers through subsidies.
The FAME II scheme is valid for three years, from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
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A PMPML bus heading towards Wagholi in Pune-Ahmednagar Road caught fire after a two-wheeler rammed into it around 10.30 am on Monday. (Representational Image) 
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