Chennai, Feb 23 (IANS): Moving towards clean and green fuel, Tamil Nadu will buy 12,000 new buses out of which 2,000 will be electric ones, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam said on Tuesday.

"Tamil Nadu is the first state in India to sign the Global C40 Clean Bus Declaration indicating its strong commitment to migrate to clean and green fuel," Panneerselvam, who also holds the finance portfolio, said while presenting the interim Budget for 2021-22 for the poll-bound state.

He said over the next few years, 12,000 buses will be procured, of which 2,000 would be electric buses.

"In the first instance, with KfW financial assistance, 2,200 BS-VI buses and 500 electric buses at a cost of Rs 1,580 crore will be procured. In the Interim Budget Estimates for 2021-22, an amount of Rs 623.59 crore has been provided for the implementation of this project," he said.

On the performance of state transport undertakings (STU) during 2020-21, Panneerselvam said the year was very difficult one for them and STUs have incurred revenue losses of Rs 3,717.36 crore upto January 2021.

"The government permitted the Transport Corporations to obtain loans based on government guarantee of Rs 3,739 crore to meet their ongoing commitments. In addition, Rs 2,914.44 crore has been released towards students' and other concessions subsidy and Rs 526.47 crore as short term loan and Rs 135.87 crore as diesel subsidy to enable the STUs to meet their salary, pension and operational commitments," he added.