BMTC’S e-bus plan hampered due to the pandemic lockdown

Bengaluru: The wait for the e-buses in the city can be longer due to the pandemic.

BMTC has given a work order to NTPC-JBM in February, to provide 90 non-AC e-buses under the Bengaluru Smart City project. The plan was to use them from June in phases.

However, sources in BMTC said that NTPC-JBM will not be able to provide the buses in June due to the pandemic situation. The deadline will be pushed to August 2021. A BMTC source said, “Several workers of NTPC and JBM were infected with Covid so the supply of buses was delayed. Since lockdown is continuing in Karnataka, full-fledged bus operations will also take some more time.”

BMTC was the first state-run transport utility in the country to conduct trials for e-buses in 2014. Its board approved a proposal to lease 150 of them in 2016. But, no e-buses have been inducted till now. On the contrary, most major metro cities have inducted such vehicles.

NTPC which is a PSU under the Union power ministry has quoted Rs 51 per km. Given the rise in fuel prices, running e-buses will be less expensive by 2022 as compared to diesel ones. C Shikha, managing director of BMTC said that the plan to induct 90 e-buses was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She said, “We are trying to induct the first bus by at least July and the remaining by December 2021.”

The 90 non-AC midi (9m) electric Metro feeder buses with a passenger capacity of 30 to 35 will be stationed near major Metro stations. An official said, “This will be a 12-year contract, wherein BMTC will pay them on a per-km basis. The firm will deploy a driver and also take care of the fleet’s operation and maintenance. We will deploy the conductor and the fare will be the same as diesel non-AC buses.”

Also, BMTC has not yet finalised the tender to induct 300 non-AC electric buses which are sanctioned under phase 2 of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme. The utility had already lost Rs 80 crore subsidy for 80 e-buses under Phase 1 of FAME.

Sources stated that the deadline for Phase 1 was April end. However, BMTC has got an extension. It has floated the fifth tender as the previous ones yielded a poor response. Five firms that have participated in the process are Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Veera Vahana, Olectra Greentech Ltd, and JMB.

An official said, “They have to show proof of the concept before finalising the tender. But, it is being delayed due to lockdown and travel restrictions. We are hoping the deadline for FAME-II will be extended.”