The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will within a year introduce 90 e-buses in their metro feeder routes.
The BMTC plans to operate these zero emission buses which are environmentally friendly, at a flat rate and these buses will also operate as conductor less. They will also be non airconditioned buses.
On Tuesday, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), the parent body of BMTC floated a tender to procure 90 e-buses which are nine metre fully built electric type-1 non-AC buses for metro feeder routes operations.
Also Read: Hyderabad police cracks the whip on traffic violations
The transport corporation is looking for bidders who can procure, operate and maintain the buses on a Gross cost contract (GCC) model. Bus manufacturers have been given a month’s time to submit their bids.
As per the GCC model, the bus supplier bears the risks involved with the costs of the bus and the transport authority bears the risks associated with the revenue model. Cost risks involve depreciation/ appreciation of the bus costs during the process of manufacture upto delivery.
The transport authority has been granted Rs 50 crores from the Bengaluru smart city scheme, a flag ship scheme of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
The MD of BMTC said that the funds released will only partially fund the entire project and funds will be made available from other sources. She also added that manufacturers will be given 6 months to supply the buses, once the bids have been successfully executed.
Integrated feeder services, intermodal terminals, smart card based integrated fare system and integrated journey information are some of the features that have been proposed in the soon to be inducted electric buses.
The buses will also have charging facilities.
Previous bids to procure e-buses in the states have failed due to issues over pricing.
Para transport or last mile connectivity is a problem that affects most Indian cities and this is being seen as a step towards solving the issue.