New Delhi: State-run Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) on Thursday floated its biggest ever request for proposals for the rising demand for electric buses, under the ‘Grand Challenge’ – a set of homogenised demand for electric buses aggregated across five major cities.
Through this Grand Challenge, CESL aims to deploy 5450 single decker buses and 130 double decker buses. The cities to be covered under this “Grand Challenge” are Bengaluru, Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata in the first phase, CESL said in a release. The first lot of e-buses are expected to hit the roads by July this year, it added.
Spearheading the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative and as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the scheme includes completely 100 percent electric buses and aims to reduce the operating costs for cities, removing bottlenecks of procuring e-buses by State Transport Undertakings (STUs), instituting best in class practices, and operating standards and enabling operational and passenger efficiencies by evolving into a platform for modernization of city bus.
“The buses are being deployed on Opex mode, STU pay in Rs per KM, this how all buses being deployed in India. With this aggregation we hope to bring down the Rs per KM by 20,%. This Grand Challenge Tender represents the efforts of so many people – STUs, OEMs, financiers, Niti Aayog, DHI and of course my colleagues. This is the biggest ever scheme in the world – and is based on an innovative, asset-light model that makes it possible for STUs to deploy affordably and at scale,” Mahua Acharya, MD & CEO, CESL, said.
She further said that the scheme will certainly encourage the faster transition to green mobility across the country while creating a synergy between private operators and state governments. “We are optimistic that this Grand Challenge will further provide a push to our goal to attain transformation to EVs from fossil fuels in the coming years throughout the country and the world,” she added.
According to CESL, the benefits of participating in the Grand Challenge include lower prices realized due to aggregate demand, high quality benchmarked technology, access to FAME-II incentives, access to state incentives, air quality improvement, and access to domestic and international sources of finances. Keeping in mind the changing environment where climate change-related issues and energy independence have turned the focus on EVs, CESL will later be expanding support to more cities, the release said.
“Standardising tendering conditions in diverse cities is a big step towards the transformation of public transport in India. Participation in the Grand Challenge is a commendable effort from STUs, who I am sure will stand to gain from economies of scale through the aggregation of demand by CESL,” Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said.
During the unveiling of the grand scheme Kailash Gahlot, Transport and Environment Minister of Delhi, said that the national capital has requested 1,500 buses under the Grand Challenge and stands ready to offer state subsidies where they are required. “We are aggressively pursuing electric mobility – and I commend CESL for its efforts to standardise the terms and conditions for how this is delivered,” he added
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CESL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) – an entity under the Ministry of Power.
This interest subvention scheme will help not just individual buyers but also the fleet owners deploying vehicles for e-commerce, grocery or delivery industry, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said on the occasion.
