CESL, Convergence Energy Service Ltd, a state-owned company with the support of the World Resources Institute India (WRI India) has started the deliberation process for the deployment of 50,000 electric busses on Indian roads by 2030.
The CESL under the Grand Challenge has started the deployment of 5,450 electric buses in five cities including Bengaluru, Surat, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
Based on a gross cost contracting method, this tender found rates that were 27% and 23% lower than those for diesel or compressed natural gas buses respectively (without any national subsidies).
NITI Aayog is the government think-tank and it has given CESL the mandate to expand the scope of Grand Challenge and use demand aggregation to procure 50,000 electric buses in the next 7 years.
CESL was also asked by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to develop a program for the scrapping of over 30,000 old buses in 25 states.
The statement stated that the Grand Challenge, the largest tender to procure electric buses in the world, saw a homogeneous and aggregated demand across five cities.