Buoyed by the impressive performance of electric buses, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided to go for a major fleet expansion by procuring non-AC electric buses, electric double-decker buses, and diesel buses. The public utility has invited tender for procuring 120 fully-built, nine-metre-long electric buses with 60 chargers.
Further, a tender for five more nine-metre electric buses, with facility to lift wheelchairs, has been floated for differently abled passengers. In addition, tenders will be invited for procuring 131 diesel buses which will ply on inter-district routes as super-fast buses, apart from five electric double-decker buses with open roofs for tourists, according to sources.
Under SWIFT
The KSRTC has already placed an order for 50 electric buses with each bus costing ₹92.43 lakh. Thirty-five of these buses have been delivered. They would be deployed under KSRTC-SWIFT, the newly formed entity to run long-distance and electric buses. The KSRTC has a fleet strength of 5,200 buses. The corporation has plans to convert its fleet of 2,300 ordinary buses into clean fuel ones — compressed natural gas (CNG) and electrically operated — in a span of three to five years. However, in the case of CNG, the corporation is yet to take a final call because of the skyrocketing prices of CNG.
Conditions
As per the bid document, the bidder should offer warranty for a period of two years or 2,00,000 kilometres, whichever is earlier, and should be willing to enter into an annual maintenance contract for five years after the expiry of the warranty period. The bidders shall only quote for the quantity they can supply within 120 days. If the lowest bidder (L1) is not able to supply the entire tendered quantity within 120 days the balance quantity shall be distributed to L2 and L3 bidder, said the document.
Cost difference
After introducing electric buses on the City Circular routes in Thiruvananthapuram, the corporation registered for the first time a monthly profit of ₹40 lakh in August and September on the routes. While electric buses cost ₹23 a kilometre, the per kilometre charge of diesel buses is ₹74.
