Credit: DH photo
Bengaluru: Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), a Government of India enterprise under the Ministry of Power, announced on Sunday that it will open a mega tender on November 6 to procure 10,900 electric buses for Bengaluru and four other cities.
At 4,500, Bengaluru will get the lion's share of these buses under the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme launched by the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
The scheme will help the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) expand its fleet to 10,000 vehicles in the next two years. The BMTC's current fleet stands at 7,067, including 1,799 e-buses.
Delhi will get 2,800 e-buses, Hyderabad 2,000, Ahmedabad 1,000 and Surat 600.
CESL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power, said it had received an "overwhelming" response to its mega tender under India’s largest-ever e-bus procurement initiative.
The pre-bid phase witnessed robust participation from domestic and international manufacturers, with bid opening scheduled for November 6, it added.
The successful bidder will be allotted depots, and will create charging infrastructure by collaborating with the respective state transport undertaking, CESL said.
Under the PM E-DRIVE, CESL said feedback from participating cities had been integrated into the tender, aligning bus types, operational parameters and depot requirements with local needs.
CESL’s demand aggregation model enables standardisation of specifications, significantly reducing overall costs. In previous rounds, this approach brought down Gross Cost Contract (GCC) rates below diesel and CNG levels, it noted.
To boost investor confidence and ensure timely payments to operators, the government of India launched the PM e-Bus Sewa Payment Security Mechanism (PSM) in October 2024, with an outlay of Rs 3,435 crore for procuring 6,743 buses, according to CESL.
The subsidy will be Rs 35 lakh per standard bus (10-12 metres), Rs 25 lakh (midi bus, 8-10 metres) and Rs 20 lakh (minibus, 6-8 metres).
Only e-buses with an ex-factory price of less than Rs 2 crore will be incentivised.
According to CESL, it has awarded 17,838 e-buses under various national programmes since 2022.