The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has 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.

A wet lease generally means that the lessor will provide the lessee, the equipment (in this case, the electric buses) along with crew members, adequate maintenance, and insurance necessary to operate.

The tender calls for 12-meter non-AC electric buses for the three zones. 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.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹4 million (~$56,273) as the earnest money deposit (EMD) for the Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam zones and the Kozhikode zone bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹2 million (~$28,136) as the EMD.

The last date for the submission of bids is January 2, 2020.

The buses under this contract will be operated for a minimum distance of 91,000 km per year during the entire contract period of ten years.

The scope of work includes the procurement, supply, and operation of the contracted buses in line with the fleet deployment requirements of KSRTC. It also includes the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the buses in compliance with the terms set by the KSRTC.

The KSRTC will provide the land for installing the charging infrastructure for the contracted buses. According to KSRTC, 50% of the awarded quantity should be delivered within nine months from the date of issue of the letter of award (LoA).

As per the tender document, the buses should run for a range of 200 km for a single charge, and the buses should not be more than three months old when supplied to KSRTC.

As for the eligibility criteria, the bidder should be either a manufacturer of electric buses or operators of buses or a consortium of manufacturers and operators. The bidder should have the required registrations and manufacturing facilities in India. The buses provided on wet lease in this tender should be registered in the state of Kerala, and they should also comply with the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME II) guidelines regarding the localization of manufacturing.

If the bidder is an operator, they should have a minimum positive net worth of ₹30 million ($422,052) in the last financial year. In the case of a consortium, it will be ₹30 million ($422,052) for all the consortium members together. The bidder should have an average turnover of at least ₹100 million ($1.41 million) for the last three financial years.

As far as the eligibility criteria for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) are concerned, the OEM should be an Indian manufacturer having a manufacturing facility in India, and OEM should have completed adequate testing and certifications.

For pricing the bids, the bidder has to quote the price for a 12-meter, single axle, non-AC electric buses for one kilometer of operation for each slab of expected kilometer of operation during the contract period. The rates have to include electricity charges, cost of installing charging infrastructure, cost of manpower such as driver, all kinds of consumables and scheduled maintenance, repairs whether routine or accident and all other taxes which are to be levied on the bus like road tax and insurance.

Over the past few months, several states like Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have also issued tenders for electric buses.

In October, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) issued a tender to procure 350 air-conditioned electric buses under the Phase-II FAME India program.

Earlier this year, KSRTC had issued a tender to lease 1,500 electric buses. It had issued three separate tenders for 500 (500*3) electric buses for ten years. The tenders were meant for three different zones: Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Ernakulam.

Image credit: DKMcLaren [CC BY-SA 4.0]