Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has issued a tender to lease 1,500 electric buses.  It has issued three separate tenders for 500 (500*3) electric buses for a period of 10 years.

The three tenders pertain to three different zones: Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Ernakulam. The tender calls for 12-meter non-AC electric buses (Battery Powered) on wet or dry lease.

In a wet lease option, the bidder will provide the buses along with a driver and KSRTC will deploy its own conductor. In a dry lease option, KSRTC will deploy the driver and conductor, and the bidder will only provide the bus.

KSRTC will have the absolute right to choose between the two lease option or could opt for a combination of both.

According to KSRTC, the electric bus must run for a distance of 250 kilometers on a single charge and should not be more than six months old when supplied to KSRTC. The mileage of buses should be a minimum of 1.5 kWh/km.

Delivery of buses has to start within 45 days from the date of award of the contract.

Bidders will have to guarantee that the battery-powered electrical buses offered in this tender will run for 250 km in a single charge at 80% of the state of charge unconditionally. If the range falls below 95%, the bidder is required to rectify the issue immediately and work to maintain it at a level not less than 95% of the assured range of 250 kilometers.

This tender has been issued five months after Olectra-BYD, an electric vehicle maker, deployed ten commercial grade electric buses in collaboration with KSRTC to take pilgrims to the Sabarimala shrine, located in the southern state of Kerala.

Recently, Kerala announced its Electric Vehicle Policy and has put out ambitious targets for the full electrification of all classes of motor vehicles by 2030. It includes bringing one million EVs on the road by 2022 and creating a pilot fleet of 200,000 two-wheelers, 50,000 three-wheelers, 1,000 goods carriers, 3000 buses and 100 ferry boats by 2020.

Other states like Goa and Delhi have also issued tenders for the procurement of electric buses in the recent past.