The Chandigarh City Bus Service Society (CCBSS) has floated a tender to procure 40 midi AC electric buses, including charging stations on a kilometer basis for ten years.

The society will operate the buses for a minimum of 7,030 kilometers per day for contracted 40 buses at 95% fleet availability. The last date for the submission of bids is February 24, 2020, and a pre-bid meeting will take place on February 13, 2020.

The interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹3 million (~$42,112) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

To take part in the bidding process, the bidder should have a maintenance agreement with the vehicle manufacturer covering the agreement period. The bidders should be a manufacturer of buses and should have supplied or owned at least 20 electric, diesel, or CNG buses in the past five years.

As far as the financial criteria are concerned, the bidder should have a minimum annual turnover of ₹250 million (~$3.5 million) for the last three years, and the net worth of the bidders should be more than ₹160 million (~$2.25 million) for the financial year 2018-19.

In the case of a consortium, there should not be more than three members, including the lead member and the lead member should have equal or more than 51% share capital of the consortium. The other members of the consortium should have more than 5% share capital of the consortium. In the case of a joint venture, at least 40% of the turnover and net worth criteria should be met by the lead partner, and each remaining partner should meet at least 5% of the turnover and net worth criteria.

As per the tender document, the successful bidder will have to deliver 19 buses within 135 days from the date of the letter of award (LoA), and the remaining 20 buses should be delivered within 180 days. The successful bidder will also have to provide the driver, and the running of the buses will be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder.

Over the past few months, many states in the country have issued tenders for the procurement of electric buses, and this points to the ongoing efforts towards electric mobility.

In December, Nagpur Municipal Corporation issued a Request for Proposal to select a bus operator for the procurement, operation, and maintenance of 40 midi electric buses on gross cost contract services.

Earlier, the Brihan-Mumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) issued a request for proposal for the supply and operation of 140 standard AC electric buses and 200 midi AC electric buses on gross cost contract (GCC) model. The tender has been floated under the FAME India Phase-II phase in the city of Mumbai.

Recently, Kerala floated a tender to procure 250 non-AC electric buses under wet-lease on the OPEX model for the zones of Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Ernakulam. The tender has been issued for 100 buses for the Thiruvananthapuram zone, 50 buses for the Kozhikode zone, and 100 buses for the Ernakulam zone.

Image credit: DKMcLaren [CC BY-SA]