Background
Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), an Undertaking of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM/BMC), supplies electricity to the South Mumbai area and provides city bus services within the municipal limits of the city. BEST is in the process of converting its entire fleet of 3,000+ diesel/CNG buses into electric buses and in addition is also increasing its fleet size to 7,000+ buses including 5,366 electric buses.
The electricity used to operate these electric buses will generate GHG emissions due to Mumbai’s reliance on coal-based electricity generation. BEST has signed an MoU with C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF) for technical assistance for the installation of rooftop solar PV panels at 27 depots and other available areas to decarbonise the grid and complement the gradual shift towards a truly zero emission bus fleet in Mumbai.
The project aims at providing technical assistance to BEST to carry out a techno-economic feasibility analysis and develop the business case, financial plan and procurement documents to prepare the project for seeking financing from investors. The feasibility analysis also includes a market study which is aimed at ensuring that project design and implementation strategy are in line with the country and sector context.
The project considers including solar PV roofs on the parking lots to provide additional energy generation and shade the concrete areas.
HEAT Services
Under this project we provided the following services:
Technical Assistance: conduct feasibility studies for the institutional, legal, technical and financial components to enable the successful implementation of the adoption of PV for the E-bus fleet. This included:
- Market Study of the PV sector in India
- Climate proofing and environmental impact analysis
- Equity and inclusion analysis
- Support to the city administration in obtaining the FAST-Infra Sustainable Infrastructure Label
- Support to the city administration in decision making by providing competent advice
- Project procurement with recommendations for the contracting scheme and documentation, draft contract, and scouting of possible bidders and investors.
- Capacity building and compilation of lessons learned
- Replication and upscaling to other Indian Cities.
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