Mumbai wants India’s EV crown — and it’s buying 1,900 buses to prove it

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Mumbai, the western city of India, has put out a tender to purchase 1,900 EV buses that will add to its existing fleet of 386. With this, the financial capital of India aims to become the biggest proponent of sustainable public transport.

The Environment Minister of the state, Aaditya Thackeray, made the announcement on Twitter earlier this week. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), the civic body for transport and electricity based in Mumbai, already runs more than 3,300 buses in the city. With more EV buses being added to the fleet, it would be able to reduce overall emissions.

Very happy to hear that @myBESTBus has put out tender notice for 1900 fully electric buses.
Currently, Mumbai has 386 electric buses.
The @MahaEnvCC is also assisting other cities in Maharashtra to increase their ⚡️ bus fleets with help of policies of GoI & GoM.

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) September 20, 2021

In July, the state of Maharashtra announced a new EV policy. Under that, it aims to achieve 25% EV-based intra-city transport in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nasik, and Nagpur by 2025. It also wants to covert 15% of its 18,000 bus fleet of MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation) to EVs. 

Mumbai is not the only city in India vying to introduce EV buses for public transport. The capital city of Delhi gave a go-ahead of procuring 300 buses in March, and targets to roll them out by November. Plus, it floated a tender for buying 465 additional EV buses.

Other metro cities of the world have also committed to phasing out diesel and petrol-based buses. Last year, Milan bolstered its EV buses fleet by ordering new vehicles. In July, Moscow announced that it will only buy EV buses from now on.