
CESL finds lower-than-estimated prices in 10,900 e-bus tender
Mint reported earlier on 1 November that PMI, EKA and Olectra were eyeing this tender. EKA confirmed the development to Mint.
PMI, and Olectra did not immediately respond to Mint's queries.A government official told Mint on the condition of anonymity that prices discovered vary for each city, and are lower by about 5-15% than previously estimated. The official also said that the tender would move ahead without OHM Global Mobility, despite the continuing lawsuit.Under the PM E-Drive scheme, the government provides a subsidy of at least ₹25 lakh per e-bus, targeting 14,028 such zero-emission buses across nine cities with populations above 4 million: Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.T Surya Kiran, former executive director of Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) said that the average price for 12-metre bus operation within a city is about ₹70-78 per kilometer, while that for 9-metre buses is ₹62-70 per kilometer.
In CESL's earlier tenders for intra-city e-buses, the price discovered was about ₹50-56 per kilometer. “Anything below ₹60 for this tender is good,” he said, adding that each intra-city electric bus runs about 200-250 kilometers in a day.ASRTU is the top coordinating body of India's state-run public bus transport operators.PMI has a capacity to make 3,000 electric buses a year at its plant in Dharuhera, Haryana, which it is expanding to more than 15,000 e-buses by establishing an another plant in Neemrana.
EKA has two plants in Pune, and is building a third one in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. Its capacity by the end of this fiscal will reach 500 e-buses a month, or, 6,000 e-buses in a year.
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