Chennai, June 25 (BPNS)
The Tamil Nadu government will be soon rolling out e-buses with tenders being called for 100 buses as a first step in Chennai city. The government has already inked a deal with the KfWGerman bank for the financial support of rolling out these buses. The Tamil Nadu government had tried to introduce e-buses much earlier but due to several operational issues, the project got delayed.
The Tamil Nadu government sources told BPNS that the first lot of 100 buses is a precursor for a much larger order of 500 low floor e-buses for Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai cities.
The Institute of Road Transport (IRT) has issued a global tender for Expression of Interest (EOI) for the supply and implementation of 100 e-buses along with their charging infrastructure for Metropolitan transport corporation in Chennai city to start with.
The IRT will be executing the procurement process on behalf of the state transport corporation of Tamil Nadu.
The state government is in the process of a total overhaul of the bus transport of Tamil Nadu by prioritizing climate friendly modernization and improved service quality.
According to information provided by the Tamil Nadu state transport corporation, each e-bus will have 36 seats with 35 normal seats and I seat exclusively reserved for People with disabilities (PwD).
The Tamil Nadu government will be procuring a total of 2000 electric buses in a period of five years with a cost sharing ratio of 80 percent of the investment as interest free loan by KfW bank and 20 percent share by the state government.
12000 Diesel buses will also be deployed in 7 State transport undertakings and electric vehicles will be deployed in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore cities as replacement of old buses.
According to the State transport policy document, MTC Chennai currently serves an area of 3929 sqkm through urban and semi urban bus services with a fleet of 3454 buses carrying more than 3 million passengers daily.
