 "Govt to ply one e-bus tomorrow on pilot basis")
The Union government has granted an extension to the procurement deadline for the initial batch of 3,600 electric buses (e-buses) under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme, setting the new cutoff date to January 31.
The amendment to the deadline was issued by the state-run Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) in response to requests from interested bidders who needed additional time to fulfil all mandatory requirements for their bids. This is the second deadline extension for the scheme. The deadline was first extended from December 15 to January 16.
The move is likely to delay the conclusion of the bidding process for these buses from the initially anticipated first week of February. On January 12, Union Minister for Housing, Urban Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, while talking to reporters, had said, 'Tenders have been floated and by January-end or first-week of February perhaps, bids will be placed.'
This will also impede the adoption of e-buses in the public transportation sector. The delay in bus supply by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the lack of state government efforts in enforcing timely procurement resulted in e-buses penetration declining to 3.3 per cent in 2023 as against 4.6 per cent in 2022.
Government data indicates that despite the Centre's approval for over 5,000 electric buses, the procurement process has been lacklustre. Despite the government committing 6,862 e-buses under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME-II) scheme, only 3,620 are delivered till December 26, according to the Ministry of Heavy Industries data.
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The Centre has a plan of deploying 50,000 e-buses by 2027 under the National Electric Bus Programme (NEBP).
The ambitious PM-eBus Sewa scheme, which was announced on August 16, seeks to introduce 10,000 e-buses across 169 cities. This will be done through a 10-year public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is overseeing this endeavour.
While the scheme has a total budget of Rs 57,613 crore, only Rs 20,000 crore will be allocated from the central government's budget. The rest will be secured through contributions from various state governments.
Distinguishing itself from FAME-II, the PM-eBus Sewa initiative empowers state governments to deploy electric buses in cities with a population of 300,000. But FAME-II focuses on deployment of e-buses in only nine cities with a population of over four million.
The tender, floated by CESL on behalf of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), seeks bids for buses in Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Meghalaya, Odisha, and Puducherry.
The highest demand for these originates from Maharashtra, with a substantial 1,453 buses, constituting 40 per cent of the total 3,600 buses. Following this, Gujarat will receive 425 e-buses, Bihar 400, Odisha 350, and Punjab 347. Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir are allocated 200 buses each, while the Union Territory of Chandigarh will receive 100 buses, Puducherry 75, and the northeastern state of Meghalaya 50 buses.
The government on December 29, 2023, also amended the guideline of the tender to include 100 low-floor buses that are more accessible to persons with disabilities compared to the ones with standard floor.
The decision was prompted by concerns raised by disability rights activists regarding the accessibility of the new buses. The original tender, issued on November 17 last year, specified buses with standard floors. Chandigarh stood out as the sole city to convert its request for 12-metre standard floor AC buses to 12-metre low-floor AC buses.
