NEW DELHI: Electric bus suppliers have quoted high prices in tenders floated under the Centre’s subsidy scheme because of payment security risks in states with weaker transport departments and tough bidding conditions.
Some state transport departments have cancelled the electric bus tenders and floated them afresh while others are negotiating with the original equipment suppliers over prices. However, the states have to speed up the process to ensure completion of delivery of the buses in 12 months to avail subsidy under the phase II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (& Hybrid) Vehicles, or Fame, scheme.
The lowest quote received by Dehradun Smart City Ltd for 12-metre buses in the recent tender is Rs 90.90 per km and Rs 73.80 per km for a 9-metre bus. Jaipur City Transport Service Ltd has received L1 quote of Rs 85.95 per km in response to its tender while the L2 quote is Rs 89 per km, a state official said. On the other hand, Rajkot Rajpath Ltd received a bid of Rs 54.82 per km and Surat Municipal Corp discovered an L1of Rs 55 per km.
Uttar Pradesh Urban Transport Directorate received bids in the range of Rs 62 per km to Rs 69 per km for its tender packages floated recently.
The bidders blamed the tender documents and payment security risks in several of the state transport utilities. “The bids were placed considering the risks associated with the state departments and also factors like zero escalation in bid documents issued by some of the agencies,” one of the bidding firms said.
Another industry insider said since this is the first time the bids have been floated under Fame II, they cannot be compared with the past ones or those discovered by other states.
In the pilot round of the Fame scheme, Goldstone-BYD placed bids of Rs 29.28 per km for a 9-meter AC bus to Bengaluru and Rs 36 per km for a similar variant for Hyderabad. Tata Motors had won a similar contract in Jaipur with Rs 70 per km bid.
“There is no benchmark for comparison,” an industry insider said. “The bidding conditions and subsidy amount is different in the previous and present rounds of Fame scheme. The government should also factor in the cost of public health if it thinks the bids are high.”
BYD-Olectra, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and PMI Electro Mobility Solutions are among manufacturers in the fray to supply and operate the electric buses for different state departments.
ET had on November 6 reported that BYD-backed Olectra is eyeing e-bus tenders in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha and is the lone bidder in Uttarakhand and Jaipur, while top domestic player Tata Motors has bid for tenders issued by Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.