Chandigarh administration to procure 100 e-buses to enhance public transport

Chandigarh: The Chandigarh administration has decided to procure 100 e-buses to avert any major disturbance in the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) bus services in Tricity. The UT administration was to receive 100 e-buses through a central govt tendering process, which has been stuck in legal tangles for more than a year. At the same time, CTU will phase out 100 diesel buses by Nov this year.
"Under the current circumstances, the administration will float fresh tenders on its own. The terms and conditions will be the same as those set by the central govt. The tender will be floated after approval from the competent authority. From the start of the tendering process to the delivery of buses, it will take at least six months," said a UT official.
The urgency for procuring the buses stems from the fact that out of 358 diesel buses, 100 will complete their 15-year service limit by Nov this year, and these will have to be phased out. The CTU is the mainstay of the public transport system in Tricity, with Mohali having no Tricity bus service available and Panchkula having a very limited local bus service. If these 100 buses are taken off the road, there would be a consequent reduction in bus services within Tricity.
The process to replace these 100 diesel buses with e-buses started a couple of years ago. "The buses were being purchased under a central govt scheme, and even the tendering process was completed last year. But since then, litigation has plagued the execution of the tender. Even if the tender materialises now, we are still unlikely to get the 100 buses before Nov," said the official.
The new 100 e-buses were to be ultra-low entry (ULE) vehicles of 12m length. The existing e-buses with CTU are 9m long and of low entry. The 100 buses were being availed under the PM e-Bus Sewa scheme. Earlier, e-buses were availed under phase II of the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme of the central govt. In the tendering process for the new e-buses, which concluded in March 2024, the lowest bid was Rs 61.8 per km.
In addition to the diesel buses, the CTU is operating 80 e-buses. The CTU received its first batch of e-buses in 2021, and 80 e-buses are operational. There are a total of 438 local buses with the CTU. The UT administration plans to replace all its diesel buses with e-buses by 2027-2028.
"The ambitious plan of the Chandigarh administration to replace all of its diesel buses with electric buses by 2027 will also be pushed back if the new e-buses are not added by the end of the year," said the official.