BMTC's first electric bus to come next month

The BMTC will get its first electric bus in September after a delay of several months caused by the pandemic.

The joint venture of the NTPC-JMB had won the contract to supply nine-metre long midi-buses under the lease (gross cost) model. Once all the clearances are received, the non-AC e-bus is expected to hit the city roads next month.

Officials in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) visited Delhi and held talks with the JV authorities.

They also visited the plant where the BMTC’s first prototype was getting the final touches and discussed the timeline of delivery.

“Once the first bus is delivered, it will open up a supply chain. The contractor has promised that all the 90 buses will be delivered by the end of December,” a source in BMTC told this newspaper.

The bidder will get about Rs 51.5 /km per bus with the BMTC committing to pay the JV for a fixed ‘assured kilometres’ regardless of the usage of the bus and revenue.

The financial support for leasing the 90 e-buses has come from Bengaluru Smart City Limited.

Work on procuring 300 buses under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME II) scheme has been delayed with officials reluctant to accept the high rates quoted by the bidder.

After “comparatively” favourable bids for 90 buses, officials had hoped to see a similar development in tender for procuring 300 buses. However, the tender procedure has since been delayed due to the pandemic.