If all goes as planned, electric buses will ply Karnataka’s roads by November 15 this year.
Under the Centre’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME India II scheme), the State will get 400 e-buses, of which 300 will be leased by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) will lease a fleet of 50 buses each. Instead of floating tenders individually, the KSRTC will float a tender for 400 buses for all the corporations through a private operator.
BMTC Managing Director C. Shikha said: “Inherent features of the buses will be different as the BMTC will operate them for intra-city services and other corporations on long-distance routes.”
The BMTC is likely to operate low floor AC e-buses on routes connecting IT corridors, or to Kempegowda International Airport. The KSRTC is planning to provide e-bus services between Bengaluru-Mysuru; Bengaluru-Tumakuru; Bengaluru-Kolar, and others, while the NWKRTC will operate buses between Hubballi and Dharwad.
As per the specification fixed by the corporations, both BMTC and KSRTC will will get 12-metre-long buses and NWKRTC is likely to operate 9-metre buses. As per the FAME India II scheme, a subsidy of ₹55 lakh will be provided to the longer buses and ₹45 lakh to the 9-metre ones.
An official of the KSRTC said that corporations will not invest any money to operate the fleet. The private operator will bear the cost. “The corporations will not make any investment to operate them. The subsidy availed from the Centre will be transferred to the private operator. The bidder who quotes the lowest operational expenditure per kilometre will be selected,” said the official.
The corporations, however, will provide space for parking at depots and facilitate electricity supply for charging. “They will provide conductors to issue tickets in each bus, while drivers and other staff required for the maintenance of the buses shall be provided by the private operators,” the official added.
In Bengaluru, the private operator will provide services for each bus till it covers 7 lakh km (200 km a day). For KSRTC, it is 14 lakh km. The official further said: “Under FAME India II, we have to award the sanction order by November 15. We are hoping the e-buses will operate within the deadline, if not earlier.”