Technical bids for supply of about 1,500 electric buses under the FAME II scheme of 5,595 e-buses across several cities has been completed and these would soon go through the financial bids before finalisation.

The Centre through the Department of Heavy Industries had announced the FAME II Scheme wherein it had approved the deployment of 5,595 electric buses across 64 cities with a million plus population and some select smart cities.

As a part of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) II an amount of ₹10,000 crore was earmarked and the State transport undertakings (STUs) were given till November 15, 2019 to finalise the tender process of e-buses.

However, based on the request of various STUs, the deadline has been extended to December 15, 2019 by which time all the tenders for electric buses have to be compulsorily finalised.

According to industry sources who have taken part in the tenders, now the process has gathered pace and we could soon see finalisation of various tenders.

All the tenders have been floated on Gross Contract Model wherein the buses will be owned and managed by the supplier/OEM and no STU can buy these buses. They will be paid per kilometre.

After some of the cities which deployed electric buses under the FAME I scheme had some problems, they have asked the suppliers to test out their e-buses before the tendering process. Accordingly, these buses are being tried out in some cities.

Process set to gather pace

While several States have already experienced these electric buses in some form or the other, there are many States where e-buses have not been deployed. They are also relatively slow in their tendering process.

However, given the DHI deadline, the tendering process is set to gather pace, sources told Business Line.

Delhi, Jhanshi, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan, Barailly, Ghazaibad, Meerut, Moradabad, Shahjahanpur, Surat, Rajkot, Dehradun are among the cities which are at advanced stage of finalisation of their tenders. As a part of the 5,595 electric buses that the DHI plans to deploy across various cities, about 400 e-buses are to be deployed under the inter-State initiatives and some buses as a pilot for last-mile connectivity for metro rail connectivity.

For the STUs and companies/OEMs participating in the tender process, it is now race against time as they have to finalise tenders before the December 15, 2019 deadline.

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