After the success of the Grand Challenge that helped discover the lowest-ever prices for electric buses (e-buses), CESL, supported by WRI India, kick-started deliberations to expedite the deployment of 50,000 electric buses (e-buses) on Indian roads by 2030, a statement said.
Under the Grand Challenge, the CESL has begun the deployment of 5,450 e-buses across five cities: Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Surat.
This tender, based on a gross cost contracting model, discovered rates that were 27 per cent and 23 per cent lower than those of diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses respectively (without national subsidy).
NITI Aayog, the government think-tank, has mandated CESL to scale up the scope of the Grand Challenge and leverage the benefits of demand aggregation to procure 50,000 e-buses over the next seven years.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has also requested CESL to design a programme for scrapping over 30,000 ageing buses across 25 states.
In the Grand Challenge — the world's largest tender for procurement of e-buses — the demand for e-buses was homogenised and aggregated across the five cities, the statement said.