NEW DELHI, Oct. 7 -- The Centre plans to tender around 3,000 electric buses to Mumbai and Pune under the Rs.10,900-crore PM E-Drive scheme, after the Maharashtra government completed the payment security criteria required to access subsidies for clean public transport, according to two officials aware of the development.

Under the scheme, the government provides a subsidy of at least Rs.25 lakh per e-bus, targeting 14,028 such zero-emission buses across nine cities with populations above 4 million: Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.

In the first tranche, the government said it would incentivise 10,900 buses of the 14,028 in five cities-Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Surat. The...