CESL invites bids for 5,580 electric buses for 5 cities
NEW DELHI: State-owned Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) on Thursday sought bids for procuring 5,580 electric buses to be deployed across five major cities.
The tender, which also includes 130 double deckers, is worth about ₹5,500 crore.
CESL, an arm of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), said in a statement that the request for proposal, named ‘grand challenge’ was the biggest ever demand for electric buses and the buses will be deployed in Bangalore, Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata in the first phase.
Delhi has requested 1,500 buses under the scheme and stands ready to offer state subsidies where they are required, the statement said quoting Kailash Gahlot, transport and environment minister of Delhi.
“We are aggressively pursuing electric mobility and I commend CESL for its efforts to standardize the terms and conditions for how this is delivered,” Gahlot said.
The first lot of e-buses are expected to hit the roads by July this year, the statement said. “CESL intends to enhance its support to state governments in achieving their electric mobility targets as well as further build an infrastructure for electric mobility in the country,” the statement said. The scheme aims to reduce the operating costs for cities and remove bottlenecks of procuring e-buses by state transport utilities.
This is seen as a big step towards making India a net zero or carbon neutral nation by 2050 and getting closer to achieving energy independence by 2047, the statement said.
The scheme is expected to help realise lower prices due to aggregated demand and achieve high quality benchmarked technology, the statement said.
Keeping in mind the changing environment where climate change related issues and energy independence have turned the focus on electric vehicles, CESL will later be expanding support to more cities, it said. “This is the biggest ever scheme in the world – and is based on an innovative, assetlight model that make it possible for state transport undertakings to deploy affordably and at scale,’’ the statement said quoting Mahua Acharya, managing director and chief executive officer of CESL. The ‘grand challenge’ will encourage faster transition to green mobility across the country while creating a synergy between private operators and state governments, she said.
PTI contributed to this story.