Bids floated for 3,000 new buses to replace old ones

Deadline to replace 15-year-old buses falling on September 30

CHENNAI: The Institute of Road Transport (IRT) has floated bids to procure 3,000 new buses to replace aged buses in the next financial year.

The IRT has notified the tender to procure 1,138 mofussil buses chassis and construction of bus body building separately. The IRT has invited bids from manufacturers for the procurement of 1,190 town chassis and 672 fully built low-floor buses in another tender notification. However, the breakdown of the number of buses to be allotted to each of the eight state transport undertakings including the Metropolitan Transport Corporation is not available.

“Happy to share that the tender for the procurement of 3000 buses announced in the budget is published today. The overaged buses will get replaced during the next financial year as the induction of new buses progress,” Phanindra Reddy, the additional chief secretary, of the transport department wrote in a social media post.

All eight STUs together have a fleet of 21,200 diesel buses, making it India’s largest bus operator. However, the primary concern is the aged buses coupled with an existing need to expand the bus fleet to cater to the needs of an increasing population and travel demand, sources said.

To address this situation, the state government has proposed a comprehensive bus transport modernisation program to replace over 9,500 overaged buses with new BS VI buses and to expand the fleet by introducing 2,000 new electric vehicles.

The procurement of the new buses has come at a time with a deadline to replace more than 15-year-old buses approaching on September 30, 2024. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had stipulated that all government-owned vehicles which are more than 15 years old should be scrapped from April 1, 2023. However, the state government has allowed the operation of the vehicles till September this year to not cause inconvenience to the public.

The primary concern is the old buses coupled with an existing need to expand the bus fleet to cater to the needs of an increasing population and travel demands, sources said