Indian Government’s ambitious plan to replace 30,000 old buses from 25 states takes shape

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has requested CESL to design a program for scrapping over 30,000 ageing buses across 25 states, reports PTI.

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To accelerate the deployment of 50,000 electric buses on Indian roads by 2030, the state-owned Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) with the help of the World Resources Institute India (WRI India) has begun deliberations. After the success of the Grand Challenge that helped discover the lowest-ever prices for electric buses (e-buses), CESL, supported by WRI India, kick-started deliberations to expedite the deployment of 50,000 electric buses (e-buses) on Indian roads by 2030. 

Under the Grand Challenge, the CESL has begun the deployment of 5,450 e-buses across five cities: Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Surat. This tender, based on a gross cost contracting model, discovered rates that were 27 percent and 23 percent lower than those of diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses respectively (without national subsidy).

NITI Aayog, the government think-tank, has mandated CESL to scale up the scope of the Grand Challenge and leverage the benefits of demand aggregation to procure 50,000 e-buses over the next seven years.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has also requested CESL to design a program for scrapping over 30,000 ageing buses across 25 states.

In the Grand Challenge -- the world's largest tender for procurement of e-buses -- the demand for e-buses was homogenised and aggregated across the five cities, the statement said.

(With inputs from PTI)