After the success of the “Grand Challenge” based tender for 5450 eBuses, Convergence Energy Services Limited announced today that a tender has been floated for another 5690 eBuses.
This unified tender calling for proposals for the provision of mobility services benefits from the participation of Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh.
This is the first tender under the National Electric Bus Programme which aims to effect the deployment of 50,000 eBuses across the country.
CESL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited, under the Ministry of Power.
The RfP comes after CESL was mandated by NITI Aayog under the then CEO, Amitabh Kant, to implement a national programme of 50,000 eBuses. The mandate came after CESL managed a ten-month long process that gave rise to a unified tender with homogenized terms and conditions, saw the participation of 5 cities under the FAME subsidy programme, and discovered prices that were 27% and 25% lower than diesel and CNG respectively, without considering the subsidy.
At the recently concluded conference, INSIGHT 2022, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari further emphasized the need to maintain high ambitions and offered the support of his Ministry in this national effort to transform the public bus system to electric.
The NEBP will seek to aggregate demand for eBuses across the country, support state transport undertakings to integrate them into their operations, and work with states and DISCOMs alike to support the creation of charging infrastructure at their depots.
The tender is based on terms and conditions standardized through the Grand Challenge process. It contains demand for three types of eBuses – 7m, 9m and 12m on a gross cost contracting basis, requesting bidders to quote a price per kilometer for operating services over 12 years – a model that is quickly becoming a standard in India. Uniquely, this tender also integrates the ambitious targets and vision set by the Honorable Prime Minister and
calls for operators to manage and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. If emissions are to be offset, operators must purchase from projects in India. The tender establishes the requirement of using 25% women as drivers, depot and factory staff.
Sharing her views, Ms Mahua Acharya, MD and CEO of Convergence Energy Services Limited, said “I remain incredibly grateful for the participation and collaboration of the five states in this tender, of which three were closely involved in building the foundation defined in the Grand Challenge. At a national level, I am very encouraged by the demand for eBuses – and appeal to suppliers to enhance production and financiers to come forth. I am also very happy that Arunachal Pradesh has joined us”.
Commenting further Ms Acharya said, “While we are implementing our vision to move India to electric mobility, it is my dream to see that one day, all these buses will be charged using renewable energy. I am sure that if we all put in our best, even this dream will come true”.
The announcement of this tender is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s international commitments to make India a Net Zero nation by 2070, and to get closer to achieving energy independence by 2047. The bidders of this tender will benefit from all financial incentives offered by state Governments – notably, Delhi and Haryana at the time of issuance.