State-owned Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) on Thursday announced floating of 'Grand Challenge', a set of homogenised demand for electric buses aggregated across nine cities.
"Giving a big thrust to the adoption of electric buses for public transport in the country, Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), today (Thursday) announced the floating of the 'Grand Challenge', a set of homogenised demand for electric buses aggregated across nine cities," the company said in a statement.
The Grand Challenge invites state transport undertakings (STUs) to express their demand for electric buses and access the FAME-II subsidy, for which a total of 3,472 buses of subsidy equivalent is available, according to the statement.
CESL will then aggregate this demand; and based on a rating system, STUs will be allocated their total number of buses.
The aggregated demand will be tendered out for the participation of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and/or operators for the discovery of prices on the basis of rupees per kilometre.
The cities to be covered under this 'Grand Challenge' are Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, and Pune.
Through the Grand Challenge, CESL intends to enhance its support to state governments in achieving their electric mobility targets and further build an infrastructure for electric mobility in the country.
This tender is seen as a big step in the series of initiatives to fulfil the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making India a net-zero nation by 2050 and getting closer to achieving Energy Independence by 2047.
"The Grand Challenge is the beginnings of aggregating demand for electric buses.
"It is based on an innovative, asset-light model that incentivises the electrification of public transit. We hope that STUs will see the benefits of this exercise and come forward with their demand for buses," Mahua Acharya, managing director and CEO of CESL, said.
CESL is a subsidiary of state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, a joint venture of public sector companies under the Ministry of Power. It is focused on delivering clean, affordable, and reliable energy. Convergence focuses on energy solutions that lie at the confluence of renewable energy, electric mobility, and climate change.
