John Kerry Holds Talks On US-India E-Bus Collaboration

DUBAI, (IANS) – US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry on December 9 discussed US-India collaboration to establish a payment security mechanism to address current constraints in the expansion of e-bus fleets in India with Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav.

With contributions of $240 million from the government of India and $150 million from the US government and their partners, the establishment of the PSM guarantees delayed payments from the fiscally constrained state bus companies. The PSM aims to unlock up to $10 billion in non-recourse lending to e-bus manufacturers in India to deploy 38,000 buses.

Kerry said, “With PSM, we are taking a major footstep towards helping India electrify its bus fleet”.

The aim is to facilitate the deployment of 10,000 made-in-India electric buses.

India’s existing bus fleet stands at 1.5 million, most of which run on diesel.

After a few successful pilots in response to a federal subsidy program, India rolled out a large, unified tender of 5,450 e-buses worth over $1 billion spread across five states. Encouraged by the success, the government established a target of 50,000 e-buses. A total of 12,000 e-buses in different stages of contracting are now coming onto Indian roads.