Bad news Re: 10,000 inaccessible buses of PM E-Bus Sewa Scheme
Vaishnavi Jayakumar
1st tender for 3,000 e-buses under PM-eBus Sewa scheme likely to be issued next week
Risha ChitlangiaOctober 28, 2023
New Delhi: The central government next week is likely to issue the tender for the first batch of 3,000 electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme announced in August, ThePrint has learnt.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) has received proposals from five states for over 3,000 buses.
“We are finalising the details and will most likely come out with the tender next week. The scheme has been approved by the Cabinet. Right now, we are taking internal permissions to come out with the first tender,” said a senior ministry official.
The Rs 57,613-crore PM-eBus Sewa scheme, under which the central government will provide financial support of Rs 20,000 crore for operations of 10,000 electric buses, is mainly for cities with poor or no public transport. The scheme will also support green mobility infrastructure.
Speaking at the 16th Urban Mobility India conference in New Delhi Friday, housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri highlighted the central government’s efforts to overhaul urban transport in the country and said, “A beginning in this direction has been made through initiatives, such as FAME-I, FAME-II and PM-eBus Sewa Scheme. The PM-e-bus Sewa scheme will augment city bus operations; while prioritising cities that lack organised bus services.”
FAME stands for ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles’.
The scheme was approved by the Union cabinet in mid-August, and weeks later MoHUA issued guidelines for the rollout of the first phase of the scheme.
The ministry plans to float tenders for all 10,000 buses in the next three to four months, said a senior ministry official.
According to the guidelines, 169 cities are eligible to apply. They will be ranked on five parameters — deficit of buses, availability of bus depots, availability of power supply, earnings per kilometre, and scrapping of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) buses.
Cities with high bus demand, ample land or ready bus depots, or power infrastructure agreements with discoms for e-buses will get a high score.
Addressing media persons on the sidelines of the conference, secretary, MoHUA Manoj Joshi said, “The urban mobility policy is a broad framework and PM-eBus Sewa is one of the many interventions. Metro, RRTS (Regional Rapid Transit System), etc., are also part of the policy framework.”
The ministry will soon also come out with the guidelines for the second part of the PM-eBus Sewa scheme, which is about the Green Urban Mobility Initiative (GUMI), said senior officials.
Under GUMI, cities will be provided financial assistance to implement the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)-based Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) and bus priority infrastructure, among other things.
Online hyperlinked version = https://docs.google.com/document/d/15Pda9V4XyYxxbWslE0Ii4Oxg4T0hsVPwm5QxkuPlmzo/edit?usp=sharing---------- Forwarded message ---------From: The Freedom of Movement Coalition
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 at 16:57
Subject: Representation re PM E-Bus Sewa Scheme compliance concerns
To: <secy...@nic.in>26 October 2023
Manoj Joshi,
Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
122-C Nirman Bhavan,
New Delhi.
Dear Mr Joshi,
SUB : PM EBus Sewa Scheme to be made compliant with statutes
The Freedom of Movement Coalition (FMC) is a pan-Indian group advocating for equity in transport.
Team FMC would like to draw your attention to the following aspects of the Draft RfP Technical Specifications (Volume III) for PM-eBus Sewa for comments from stakeholders released on 28 September 2023, which despite the professed claim to provide buses with ‘easy passenger accessibility including for persons with disabilities (PWDs)’ exclude disabled citizens and are in violation of The 2016 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPDA) (Sections 41 & 46) read with the 2017 RPDA Rules (Section 15B).
In Table 1: Technical specifications of Type-I non-BRTS Electric bus, the following categories are outlined in the introduction
1. 12m, 900 mm floor height AC Bus
2. 9m, 900 mm floor height AC Bus
3. 7m, 650 to 900 mm floor height AC BusWhile 650 mm floor height buses have a single step after the footboard, 900 mm floor height buses have 2 steps. Type-I buses proposed by the PM-eBus Sewa scheme are vehicles designed and constructed for urban and suburban / city transport with area for standing passengers, to allow quick and easy movement of passengers (including standing passengers) and are associated with frequent stops and short dwell times.
This particular use case would be best served by step-free, level boarding that benefits crutch users, pregnant persons, children, wheelchair users, older persons etc alike.
While a lift system could be explored for long distance journeys with fewer stops and less stressful schedules, for Type-I intra-city buses, the lift system proposed will benefit wheelchair users alone (albeit with significantly increased dwell time - a low floor bus takes only 25% dwell time of a lift operated bus), leaving out crutch / calliper users, pregnant persons, stroke survivors etc.
It is concerning that Item 16 in Table 1 ‘Provisions of for wheel chair of Persons with Disability (PwD)’ specifies ‘As per AIS:153, in at least 10% of the fleet (except for 7 m buses).’ This provision which fixes an optional minimum proportion of universally accessible buses flies in face of the universal requirement for any public transport vehicle. Not only is this provision unethical, it is a violation of disability law, the bus body code as well as the Central Motor Vehicle Rules.
As per MoRTH GSR 797(E) dated 31.10.2022, Central Motor Vehicle Rules' No 189, Table D, serial number 22 (v) requires all Type 1 buses to have space for at least 1 wheelchair from 1 April 2023, barring which the buses will be declared unfit.
Though this has now been extended to October 2024 via GSR Notification 233(E) dated 29.03.2023, due to non-readiness of automated testing stations (ATS), the disability related components of the fitness readings are based on visual inspection parameters and therefore require no postponement in compliance.
Even if a vehicle is procured using loopholes, given that GSR 663(E) dated 12.09.2023 requires testing every 2 years for vehicles less than 8 years old, and yearly thereafter, a public transport vehicle without wheelchair docking space will not get its fitness certificate renewed.
No mention has been made of requirements of blind passengers - while the IIT Delhi ITS ‘On Board’ homing system for blind passengers to correctly identify their bus when multiple buses arrive at the same time, is not yet part of the bus body code, the requirement of Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) for electric / Quiet Road Transport Vehicles under AIS 173 has also been omitted despite evidence of quiet vehicles causing death or bodily injuries of blind pedestrians unaware of their presence.
It would be remiss on our part to not mention concerns that in a country with an acute shortage of buses for even existing patrons, the choice of procuring all 10000 buses planned under PM EBus Sewa as air-conditioned buses, is costly in more ways than one and will potentially exclude current passengers who rely on affordable, reliable, accessible public transport as their only option.
Item v in the introduction reads “Where there is conflict between the requirement as per any applicable law in force and the requirement emanating from these specifications whichever of these two is of superior/ higher standard shall prevail. Also, any specifications superior to the ones set out as Minimum Technical Specifications shall meet requirements of the contract. “
In keeping with this provision, you are therefore requested to rectify the technical specifications, remove contradictory provisions in favour of superior inclusion parameters and ensure compliant procurement of universally designed, step-free, level boarding Type - I public transport that is accessible to ALL.
The Freedom of Movement Coalition’s Specifications for Disabled-Friendly Bus Transport in India may be referenced to ensure legal and inclusive procurement.
Regards,
THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT COALITION