PM-eBus Sewa

What is PM-eBus Sewa?

PM-eBus Sewa is a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, approved by the Union Cabinet in August 2023, to augment city bus operations with electric buses and to fund green urban mobility infrastructure. PM-eBus Sewa carries an estimated total outlay of Rs 57,613 crore, of which Rs 20,000 crore is central government support and the remainder is borne by state governments and cities.

The scheme exists because city bus supply in India collapsed over two decades. Many cities above three lakh population run no organised bus service at all, and those that do run ageing diesel fleets that lose money on every kilometre. PM-eBus Sewa addresses both problems at once: it puts 10,000 electric buses on the road through a public-private partnership model, and it pays part of the operating cost gap for 10 years so that cities are not left with an asset they cannot afford to run.

State governments and urban local bodies are the applicants. Citizens are the beneficiaries, as passengers.

Key objectives

• Provide organised city bus service in cities that currently have none, with those cities given priority.
• Replace diesel city buses with electric buses to cut urban emissions and operating cost per kilometre.
• Build the supporting infrastructure; depots, chargers, power upgrades, bus priority lanes and multimodal interchanges.
• Generate an estimated 45,000 to 55,000 direct jobs through the public-private partnership deployment.

Main features

• Two segments: augmenting city bus services in 169 cities, and Green Urban Mobility Initiatives in 181 cities.
• 10,000 electric buses on a public-private partnership model.
• 10 years of central support per deployment; scheme period extends to 2037.
• National Common Mobility Card-based automated fare collection and Intelligent Transit Management Systems as funded components.
• Priority to cities without an organised bus service.

Who is eligible for PM-eBus Sewa?

Eligibility under PM-eBus Sewa is a question about cities, not people.

Cities that can be covered:

• Cities with a population of 3 lakh and above as per the 2011 Census.
• All capital cities of union territories.
• Cities in the North Eastern states and in hilly states, regardless of the three-lakh threshold.
• Within that pool, cities with no organised bus service get priority.

What the city must bring:

• A proposal routed through the state urban development department.
• Depot land and power availability for charging infrastructure.
• A committed state and city financial share, since central assistance covers only part of the Rs 57,613 crore outlay.
• Willingness to operate on the public-private partnership model, with buses procured and run by an operator under a concession agreement.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an individual citizen, bus driver, conductor or commuter; there is no personal benefit, no subsidy claim and no application form for individuals under PM-eBus Sewa. Any site inviting you to "register for PM-eBus Sewa" as a person is not describing this scheme.
• You are a private bus operator approaching the Ministry directly. Operators are selected by the city or state transport undertaking through competitive tender, not by MoHUA.
• Your city is below 3 lakh population and is not a union territory capital, a North Eastern city or a hilly-state city.
• Your city cannot commit the state and city share or cannot demonstrate depot land and power supply.

What documents are required for a PM-eBus Sewa proposal?

How to apply for PM-eBus Sewa

PM-eBus Sewa has an institutional application route only. These steps describe how a city actually gets into the scheme.

1. The urban local body or state transport undertaking prepares a city proposal covering route network, passenger demand, required fleet size, depot land and charging infrastructure.
2. The city confirms depot land availability and power connection load with the state discom, since sanction depends on these being real rather than planned.
3. The proposal is submitted to the state urban development department, which appraises it and confirms the state and city financial share.
4. The state forwards the recommended proposal to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under PM-eBus Sewa.
5. MoHUA appraises and sanctions the city's bus allocation and infrastructure component.
6. The city or state transport undertaking runs a competitive tender to select an operator under the public-private partnership model, and signs the concession agreement.
7. Buses, depots and chargers are deployed, and central support flows for the agreed period of up to 10 years per deployment.

Individuals who want to work in the resulting system apply to the operator or the transport undertaking for driver, conductor, technician and depot jobs. Those are ordinary employment applications and are not made to MoHUA.

How much benefit does PM-eBus Sewa provide?

• Rs 57,613 crore total estimated outlay.
• Rs 20,000 crore of central government support, with the balance from states and cities.
• 10,000 electric buses targeted across 169 cities under Segment A.
• Green Urban Mobility Initiatives in 181 cities under Segment B.
• 10 years of central support for deployed buses, with the scheme running to

• 45,000 to 55,000 direct jobs estimated from the deployment.

All 10,000 air-conditioned electric buses have now been sanctioned for 116 cities across 26 states and union territories on the public-private partnership model, tied to each city joining the PM-eBus Sewa Payment Security Mechanism. The first four cities — Guwahati, Bhavnagar, Nagpur and Chandigarh: began operations in February 2026.

What does the Green Urban Mobility Initiatives segment fund?

Segment B of PM-eBus Sewa covers the infrastructure that makes a bus system work rather than the buses themselves:

• Bus priority infrastructure; dedicated lanes and signal priority.
• Multimodal interchange facilities connecting bus, metro and rail.
• NCMC-based automated fare collection systems, so one card works across modes.
• Charging infrastructure and depot electrification.
• Intelligent Transit Management Systems for scheduling, tracking and passenger information.
• Accessible bus stops and last-mile connectivity works.

How PM-eBus Sewa relates to the Payment Security Mechanism

Electric bus operators under the public-private partnership model carry a real risk that a cash-strapped transport undertaking will not pay them on time. To address that, a Payment Security Mechanism has been notified for PM-eBus Sewa deployments, administered on the central government side, which assures operators of payment where a state transport undertaking defaults. That mechanism is what makes private operators willing to bid, and it is a scheme-side financial instrument, not a citizen benefit.

Common misunderstandings about PM-eBus Sewa

• "I can register for PM-eBus Sewa and get a subsidy on an electric vehicle." No. Vehicle purchase incentives sit under separate schemes. PM-eBus Sewa funds city bus systems.
• "PM-eBus Sewa makes bus travel free." No. Fares are decided by the state or city transport authority; the scheme funds the cost gap, not the fare.
• "My town of 1 lakh people will get buses." Not under the three-lakh threshold, unless it is a union territory capital or falls in a North Eastern or hilly state.
• "A private operator can apply directly to MoHUA." Operators are selected by the city through tender.

Help and contacts

• PM-eBus Sewa Project Management Unit, MoHUA: 011-23783313
• Email: pm-ebus-sewa-mohua@gov.in
• Address: Room 212, 2nd Floor, Sankalp Bhawan, KG Marg, New Delhi 110001
• Scheme portal: pm-ebus-sewa.mohua.gov.in for city-wise sanction status and guidelines
• State urban development department, for a city's proposal status

Cities and state agencies pay no fee to submit a PM-eBus Sewa proposal, and no consultant or intermediary is required to route a proposal to the Ministry.

How to check your application status

There is no citizen-facing application, so there is no individual status lookup, but a state urban development department or urban local body that has submitted a city proposal can track it through the following channels.

1. Scheme portal, city-wise sanction status. The urban local body or state nodal officer checks pm-ebus-sewa.mohua.gov.in for the published list of sanctioned cities, bus allocations and the Payment Security Mechanism enrolment status against the city's name.
2. State urban development department. Since a city cannot approach the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs directly, the state department that forwarded the proposal is the first point of follow-up; it holds MoHUA's appraisal correspondence and can confirm whether the proposal is still under review, returned for clarification, or sanctioned.
3. PM-eBus Sewa Project Management Unit at MoHUA. The nodal officer of the urban local body or state transport undertaking can write to pm-ebus-sewa-mohua@gov.in or call 011-23783313 with the city name and proposal reference to ask for a status update directly from the Ministry.
4. Operator and concession milestones, once sanctioned. After sanction, status shifts from "proposal under appraisal" to implementation tracking: whether the competitive tender has been floated, whether an operator has been selected, and whether depot and charging infrastructure construction has started. These milestones are tracked by the state transport undertaking, not by MoHUA's citizen-facing channels.
5. Payment Security Mechanism enrolment. Since bus deployment is now tied to a city joining the Payment Security Mechanism, a city with a sanctioned allocation but no visible bus rollout should specifically check with the state transport undertaking whether PSM enrolment is complete, since that is what unlocks actual bus supply against a sanction.

A resident who wants to know whether their own city has been sanctioned should check the portal's city list or ask their municipal corporation or state transport undertaking; there is no personal tracking number to quote because no individual application exists.

Common reasons for rejection

PM-eBus Sewa proposals fail or stall at the state and city level, not through an individual rejection letter. The recurring failure points are:

• Population threshold not met, and no exemption applies. A city below 3 lakh population that is not a union territory capital, a North Eastern state city or a hilly-state city does not qualify at all. The fix is not a stronger proposal; it is that the city is outside the scheme's coverage until the criterion changes.
• No committed state and city financial share. Central assistance covers only part of the Rs 57,613 crore outlay, and a proposal that does not carry a firm state or municipal budget commitment for the balance is appraised as financially unviable. The fix is for the state finance department to commit its share in writing before the proposal is forwarded, not after MoHUA raises the query.
• Depot land or power supply not actually secured. Proposals that show a depot "planned" rather than land already identified, and a power load "requested" rather than confirmed with the discom, are held back at appraisal. The fix is to close land allotment and get a discom load confirmation letter before submission, since these are checked as preconditions, not aspirations.
• Proposal routed incorrectly, bypassing the state. A city or urban local body that tries to approach MoHUA directly instead of through the state urban development department gets its submission returned, since PM-eBus Sewa proposals are structured as state-forwarded submissions. The fix is to route every submission through the state department first.
• Weak or missing demand assessment. A route network and fleet size that are not backed by an actual ridership or demand study are a common reason appraisal is delayed pending revision. The fix is to commission a proper demand assessment before the proposal reaches MoHUA rather than submitting indicative numbers.
• No operator or concession framework in place at the implementation stage. Even after sanction, a city that has not run its competitive tender or cannot attract bidders under the public-private partnership model will not see buses deployed against its allocation. The fix is to complete the tender process promptly and address bidder concerns, including Payment Security Mechanism enrolment, since operators bid on the strength of that payment guarantee.
• Individual or private-party applications. Applications from individual citizens, drivers or private operators addressed to MoHUA are not processed at all, since PM-eBus Sewa has no application form or eligibility category for individuals. The only fix is to route the request through the correct channel, which for citizens is simply using the bus service once deployed, and for operators is bidding into the city's tender.