Convergence Energy Services (CESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) has floated a request for proposals (RfP) for the biggest ever order for electric buses, under the ‘Grand Challenge’ scheme.
This will include homogenised demand for electric buses aggregated across five major cities.
The scheme entails 100 percent electric buses and aims to reduce the operating costs for cities, remove bottlenecks of procuring e-buses by State Transport Undertakings (STUs), institute best-in-class practices and operating standards, and enable operational and passenger efficiencies by evolving into a platform for modernization of city bus.
The cities to be covered under this “Grand Challenge” are Bengaluru, Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata in the Phase-I. The first lot of e-buses are expected to hit the roads by July 2022. Through this scheme, CESL aims to deploy 5,450 single decker buses and 130 double decker buses.