CESL May Cancel Tender For E-Buses Due To Poor Response

The Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) is now reportedly mulling to cancel its earlier tender, issued in January 2023 for 4,675 electric buses (e-buses). This is apparently due to the poor response from the major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) towards the tender.

The tender was issued under the dry lease tender mode against the popular Gross Contract Model through which several electric buses made its entry onto the roads of cities like Delhi. According to reports, the India OEM behemoths remained away from the tender. Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) is a PSU under Ministry of Power. It floated the tender in January for the supply of 4,675 e-buses worth Rs 5,000 crore. It was the second tender under the National Electric Bus Programe (NEBP).

The PSU was planning to deploy these buses in states like Delhi, Kerala and Telangana. During the first tender, the CESL had claimed to have biggest non-subsidized demand for 6465 electric buses from six states- Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Surat (Gujarat), Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

The National Electric Bus Programme aims to deploy 50,000 e-buses across the country. It has been planned to aggregate demand, support state transport undertakings to integrate electric buses into their operations, and work with states and DISCOMs alike to support the creation of charging infrastructure at their depots.

Both the operating models as proposed in the tenders work differently. While under the Gross Contract Model (GCM), the private companies which tie up with the company take care of the operations, maintenance, charging and also the driver the things are now same in the dry lease model.

Under the GSM model, the authorities pay the private entities based on the per kilometer of the travel. Under the dry lease model, the service providers are given specified rates during the agreement period whereas the operations and other works are taken care by the transport authorities in the state.