Delhi Budget: FM Atishi Allots INR 510 Cr For Ebuses

The Delhi government on Monday (March 4) announced an outlay of INR 510 Cr for electric buses (ebuses) in the financial year 2024-25. 

During her Budget speech, finance minister Atishi said that the Delhi government has also signed concession agreements for the deployment of 1,900 new ebuses in order to promote bus commuting in the capital state.

Atishi said that Delhi would be home to over 10,000 public transport buses by 2025, 80% of which will be electric.

The development comes at a time when the Centre is also focusing on promoting the adoption of ebuses in the country now. The upcoming FAME-III scheme is expected to mainly focus on incentivising the adoption of ebuses.

It is pertinent to note that the Delhi government announced the launch of an electric vehicle policy in 2020, which aimed to have 25% of all new vehicles in the state by 2024 to be electric.

Since then, the Delhi government has taken several new measures to increase EV adoption and penetration in the state, including building public charging infrastructure and battery-swapping stations.

Over the last few years, Delhi has been one of the top states in terms of electric vehicle (EV) sales, behind the likes of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

As per data from the Vahan portal, Delhi’s total EV registrations jumped over 140% year-on-year to surpass the 62,000-units mark in 2022. However, total vehicle registrations grew only 18% to 73,646 units in 2023. 

Earlier, the Delhi government set a target to install around 18,000 public and semi-public EV charging points by 2024. As per the Centre’s data for last year, Delhi had the highest number of public charging stations in the country at 1,845. 

However, the Delhi government’s website shows that the state currently has 1,919 charging stations and 2,452 charging points, same as in 2022. 

During her Budget speech today, Atishi also said that Delhi has the third-largest ebus fleet in the world, with a total of 1,650 such vehicles.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the adoption of EVs, the Delhi government also notified ‘Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme 2023’ in November last year. It mandates that the fleets of all the vehicle aggregators operating in the state, including aggregators, delivery service providers, and ecommerce entities, should be 100% electric by 2030.