Second phase of FAME India Scheme focuses on supporting electrification of public transportation: Ministry

The second phase of FAME India Scheme focuses on supporting electrification of public and shared transportation and aims to support through subsidies electric vehicles, including buses, passenger cars and two-wheelers, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Prakash Javadekar said at present, Phase-II of FAME India Scheme is being implemented from April 1, 2019 for three years with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore.

"This phase focuses on supporting electrification of public & shared transportation and aims to support, through subsidies, 7090 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers," he said.

With an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government had launched the FAME India scheme (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Strong) Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India) in 2015. The ongoing pilot phase of the scheme was earlier extended till September this year or until its second phase is approved.


In a separate reply, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arjun Ram Meghwal said under Phase-II of the scheme, 56,900 electric vehicles have been supported as on March 10 this year, by way of demand incentive amounting to about Rs 170 crore.

Replying to another question, he said introducing a revised mechanism ensuring timely closure of sick and loss-making units has been announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget Speech 2021-22. "Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) being the nodal department will formulate the revised closure mechanism of sick and loss-making CPSEs and notify the revised mechanism on completion of due process," Meghwal said.

In another reply, he said the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has informed that since 2016, the government has 'in-principle' approved strategic disinvestment of 35 CPSEs and subsidiaries/ units/ joint ventures.

Out of this, four CPSEs - Scooters India Ltd, Uttar Pradesh; Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd, Telangana; Bharat Pumps and Compressors Ltd, Uttar Pradesh; and Hindustan Prefab Ltd, New Delhi are identified for closure. The main reason for failure of strategic disinvestment of these units is due to limited investor response/ failure to get the bids, he added.