CESL Rolls Out Grand Challenge to Adopt Electric Buses
Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) has launched the ‘Grand Challenge’ through which it is inviting state transport departments to consider adopting electric buses for its people moving requirements.
To be aggregated across nine cities, the ‘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 is equivalent is available.
“We are already running successful 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler EV initiatives in states like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and are optimistic that this new development will further our goal to attain transformation to EVs from fossil fuels in the coming years throughout the country,” Mahua Acharya, MD & CEO, CESL, said.
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 and/or operators for the discovery of prices based on rupees per kilometer.
The cities 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 step in the series of initiatives to fulfill the government’s ambition towards making India a net-zero nation by 2050 and getting closer to achieving energy independence by 2047.
