Green mobility, 7 rail projects get Cabinet nod

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

union cabinet on Wednesday approved Rs 57,613 crore green mobility scheme, seven multitracking rail projects worth Rs 32,500 crore and a Rs 13,000 crore scheme to upskill and provide concessional credit to craftsmen. "....Priority will be given to cities having no organised bus service," Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Singh Thakur told reporters after a meeting of the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pointing out that there was a shortage of public transport services, especially buses across the country, Thakur said, «The National Urban Transport Policy has also called for strengthening the non-motorised transport infrastructure of the country.» He said that 10,000 electric buses (e-buses) will be provisioned for 100 cities in the country. These 100 cities out of 169 cities with a population between 3-40 lakh will be selected through a challenge, he said.

An official statement said the scheme will support bus operations for 10 years. «Cities with a population less than 5 lakh will get 50 e-buses, those with a population between 5-20 lakh will get 100 e-buses,» Thakur said.

Cities with a population between 20-40 lakh will get 150 e-buses, the minister said, adding that those cities and states that offer land to set up scrapping facilities for old buses will get more e-buses under the scheme.Rail Infra upgrade Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw said the cabinet committee on economic affairs had given its nod to seven multi-tracking projects aimed at easing operations and reducing congestion. «This will provide the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways,» he said.