In a bid to electrify public transport in smaller cities, the Union government will go ahead with the process of price discovery for an additional 10,000 electric buses. With the upcoming tender, the government looks to focus on Tier-2 and smaller 9-metre busses.
Earlier this week, the state-run Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) announced a tender for 5,540 electric buses across five cities — Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Surat. Tata Motors emerged as the lowest bidder in all five categories with a bid of Rs 5,000 crore.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, MD & CEO of CESL Mahua Acharya said price discovery for electric buses has been 35 percent cheaper than diesel. She added that it’s time to consider moving over to electric buses for public transport system.
“The price discovery that we saw and the participation that we saw has been very encouraging. The prices without subsidy are 35 percent lower than diesel. So that means that we have now the basis to seriously consider moving over to electric buses for our public transport system,” she said.
Acharya said India needs to have a national programme for electric buses as there is a serious shortage.
“Electric mobility is something that the country needs. We worked in the metropolitan areas this time around and there is requirement for many more buses. India has a serious shortage of buses. So what we really need is a nation programme for electric buses,” she said.
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