New Delhi (TIP)- Prioritising the urban public transport, the government proposed to allocate Rs 1,300 crore to procure electric buses and Rs 24,931 crore in the interim Budget to fund various metro projects in the country.
There is a 7.57 per cent increase in funds for the mass rapid transit system and metro projects in comparison to the last year’s allocation of Rs 23,175 crore. In the interim Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Rs 26,170 crore has been set aside for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) — an increase of 4.3 per cent.
The Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), a micro-credit scheme that provides collateral-free working capital loans of up to Rs 50,000 to street vendors, has been allocated Rs 326 crore against Rs 468 crore in the last Union Budget.
The Smart Cities Mission received Rs 2,400 crore in the interim Budget while it had been allocated Rs 8,000 crore in the 2023-24 General Budget. The period of the mission is scheduled to end in June this year.
The Swachh Bharat Mission, another flagship programme of the Modi government, has been given Rs 5,000 crore.
The government has proposed to allocate Rs 1,300 crore to procure electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme. Under the scheme, 10,000 electric buses will be provided to 169 cities under the public-private partnership model.
Last month, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said the government has floated tenders for procuring e-buses under the scheme. The scheme, which will continue till 2037, will have an outlay of Rs 57,613 crore, of which Rs 20,000 crore will be provided by the Centre and the rest will be borne by the states.
While presenting the interim Budget, Sitharaman said that rapid urbanisation is taking place in the country, asserting that metro rail and NaMo Bharat trains can be catalysts for the required urban transformation.
She said expansion of these systems will be supported in large cities focusing on transit-oriented development.
In October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the country’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS). It was named NaMo Bharat train. “We have a fast-expanding middle class and rapid urbanisation is taking place,” Sitharaman said.
According to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, one crore passengers ride metro systems per day in the country.