The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has floated a tender for 15 hydrogen polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell electric buses to be supplied at its research and development center in Faridabad, Haryana.

The electric buses must be delivered in 144 weeks. IOC did not specify an earnest money deposit (EMD) requirement for the tender. The deadline for bid submission is January 25, 2020.

Successful bidders must supply 15 homologated buses, of which ten must be nine-meter-long buses, and five must be 12 meters long. The buses must be designed keeping the climatic and operational conditions prevalent in the Delhi-National Capital Region. Successful bidders must test the buses in collaboration with the IOC to ensure a mileage of 20,000 km and provide service and maintenance operations.

To be eligible to participate in the competitive bidding process, bidders must have supplied at least two electric buses as a direct sale order or ten buses on a gross contract basis in the country in the last five years. Applicants must have the facility to develop, manufacture, assemble, or fabricate PEM fuel cell stacks and systems in the country.

They are also expected to have met testing and certification requirements under the Central Motor Vehicle Rule, 1989 (CMVR) for at least one electric bus. Prospective bidders must also have had an annual turnover of ₹303.1 million (~$4.14 million) in the last three financial years.

Bidders are also expected to buy back the buses and submit a normalized buy-back cost for one unit at the time of bid submission, IOC said. It added that it would retain at least four buses for captive usage after completing the project.

In November 2020, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation had invited bids to select a service provider to procure 300 electric buses on a gross cost contract model. The contract included operation and maintenance services.

A little earlier, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation invited bids for hiring 50 electric buses on wet lease for the Thiruvananthapuram zone under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) Electric Vehicles-II (FAME II) program.