HYDERABAD: In a big push to EV infrastructure, Hyderabad is expected to add more electric buses with the Centre gearing up with a tender to deploy over 5,500 e-buses in five cities which includes the State capital. Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL), a subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power is preparing to launch a Rs 5,450 crore tender for procuring electric buses for five cities, namely Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Surat.
Companies that are largely OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) with their operators and financial institutions like Tata, JBM, Ashok Leyland, Volvo Eicher and Olectra are anticipated to partake in the tender. The Request For Proposal to be released is an appeal for bidders to quote a price for the five targeted cities. “We have floated the largest Request for Proposal for 5,450 single-decker and 130 double-decker e-buses as part of The Grand Challenge,” said Convergence Energy Services Ltd.
Cities like Bengaluru and Delhi are planning to induct 1,500 buses each on their roads. The e-buses will be offered as a service to State transport wherein they pay per kilometre for 12 years without any upfront payment. This is seen as a big step in the series of initiatives to achieve ‘Energy Independence’ by 2047, CESL said.
It also declared that, subsidised by the FAME-II scheme, this initiative will concentrate on reducing operating costs for cities, removing bottlenecks of procuring electric buses by State transport undertakings, and modernisation of city bus fleets. The agency has said that at later stages, it will extend similar aid to more cities.
EV prices on par with IC engines
It is estimated that the EV prices will achieve price parity with Internal Combustion Engine vehicles before 2025. India intends to reduce EV prices by leveraging scale, as was seen in a recent tender wherein Mahindra Electric Mobility, TVS Motor Co., Kinetic Green Energy, and Power Solutions, Etrio, Mali and Keto Motors Pvt Ltd emerged as the lowest bidders for a Rs 3,000 crore CESL tender to procure 1 lakh electric three-wheeler vehicles.