India’s PM e-Bus Sewa scheme is transitioning from planning to large-scale deployment, with major fleet orders signifying a significant boost to the country’s electric mobility ambitions across multiple cities.
India’s public electric bus rollout is gathering pace as the PM e-Bus Sewa scheme starts to translate policy into large fleet orders. Recent contract wins suggest that the programme is moving beyond planning and into city-scale deployment, with operators and manufacturers now competing for multi-city packages that include not only bus supply but also charging, depot and other supporting infrastructure.
One of the biggest awards has gone to JBM Ecolife Mobility, a subsidiary of JBM Auto. According to Business Standard and other industry reports, the company secured an order worth about Rs 5,500 crore from Convergence Energy Services Limited for 1,021 electric buses under the PM e-Bus Sewa Scheme’s second tender. The contract covers procurement, supply, operation and maintenance, together with the civil and electrical infrastructure needed to run the fleet, under a gross cost contracting model.
The buses are due to be deployed across roughly 19 cities in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana. Industry reports say the project is expected to be completed within 12 to 18 months, and some accounts indicate that JBM will oversee the programme end to end, from vehicle roll-out to allied infrastructure. Truck and Bus Builder reported that the contract is intended to deliver 32 billion passenger e-kilometres over the life of the project, while cutting more than 1 billion kilogrammes of carbon dioxide.
JBM’s win comes alongside other awards under the same scheme, underlining the scale of the government’s plan to expand electric public transport. GreenCell Mobility has also won a separate contract for more than 1,200 electric buses, with deployments split between Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Together, the awards point to a broader effort to build a domestic electric bus market around centralised procurement, long-term operations and city transport reform.
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