Eleven cities in the State have qualified to introduce electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme and Mangalore is one among them. The other cities are Mysuru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Hubballi, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Ballari, and Vijayapura.

Minister for Transport and Muzrai Ramalinga Reddy said that the three State-owned transport corporations under whose jurisdiction the cities exist have together submitted a demand for 795 e-buses under the scheme. Of them the KSRTC has submitted a demand for 350 buses as 100 buses each for Mysuru and Mangalore and 50 buses each for Davangere, Shivamogga and Tumakuru.

As per the Union government, the scheme has been introduced to boost India’s electric mobility infrastructure. The scheme provides support for the deployment of 10,000 electric buses in 169 cities in the country through a Central outlay of ₹ 20,000 crores, on public-private partnership model. The scheme would have an estimated cost of ₹ 57,613 crore, out of which support of ₹ 20,000 crore will be provided by the Union government. The scheme will support bus operations for 10 years.