Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired the maiden meeting of recently constituted UT Level Steering Committee (UTLSC) to take stock of the measures taken, so far, by the Housing & Urban Development Department to receive 200 more e-buses under PM e-Bus Sewa for both Jammu and Srinagar cities.
Other members of the committee who participated in the meeting included Principal Secretary, Finance; Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir/Jammu; Secretary, Transport; MD, JPDCL; CEO, SSCL/JSCL besides other concerned officers.
The Chief Secretary took notice of the requirement of modalities and infrastructure to be raised to operate these buses in the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar. He enquired about the costs to be incurred on development of the depots, charging stations and those to be made as operational expenditure to run this public transport system on per kilometre basis daily.
Dulloo further asked about the kind of infrastructure and quantum of expenses to be covered under the central assistance. He advised for exploring all the options to secure funding for the operation of these buses besides the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to assuage some burden of expenses from the local government.
He also examined the plans of the Department for establishment of depots for these buses at Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu and Bemina in Srinagar. He advised the Finance Department to examine the requirement of funds for operation of these vehicles so that the same is made available to the Department.
The Chief Secretary emphasised speedy completion of formalities like opening of bank accounts and making undertakings by the Finance and H&UDD for seamless progress on this scheme in J&K.
Earlier, Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Santosh D.Vaidya, also gave his inferences about the operation of these buses. He made out that the costs as per preliminary estimates could be around Rs 42 crore per year on their operation based upon the experience of running similar other vehicles in Jammu and Srinagar.
On the occasion, Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD, Mandeep Kaur, apprised the meeting that a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for development of the “Depot Infrastructure” costing Rs16.72 crore and for “Behind the Meter Power Infrastructure” including 6.6-megawatt substation worth Rs 8.51 crore stands prepared for Jammu.
Similarly, SSCL has also prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for development of the “Depot Development” costing Rs 14.50 crore and KPDCL has prepared DPR for “Behind the Meter Power Infrastructure” worth Rs5.78 crore.
It was added that these DPRs had been prepared in accordance to the scheme regulations and all of them stands approved by the Central Steering Committee (GoI) to be taken up for execution here.
Giving details about the scheme, CEO, JSCL, Devansh Yadav, informed the meeting that the department is going to secure a fleet of 25 number of 12 m buses and 75 units of 7m buses for Jammu. He added that 20 number of 12 m buses and 80 units of 9 m buses are going to be secured for Srinagar under PM e-Bus Sewa scheme.
It was further added that a Central Assistance (CA) for the operation of e-Buses on the PPP model in urban areas will be provided on a per kilometer (km) basis for 10 years or up to March 2037, whichever is earlier.
The rates of assistance would be Rs 24/ Km for 12m, Rs 22/Km for 9m and Rs 20/Km for 7m buses. Additionally, 100% central assistance for creation of ‘Behind-the-meter Power’ infrastructure and 90% for depot infrastructure, up to Rs 20 crore to be incurred on the ground.
Moreover, it was divulged that the total operational cost of this fleet in Jammu would be around Rs 628 crore with a subsidy amount of Rs 158 crore and earnings of nearly Rs 167 crore. Similarly, the costs estimated for Srinagar came up to Rs 686 crore with Rs 177 crore to be received as subsidy and Rs 167 crore as earnings over a period of 10 years thereby leaving a revenue gap of Rs 625 crore to be funded by the UT over this decade.