- CESL launched the biggest tender of around Rs. 5,550 crores to produce around 5,580 electric buses.
- The cities that will be covered under the ‘Great Challenge’ are Banglore, Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.
- CESL’s purpose is to enhance the support it provides to the state governments in achieving their electric mobility targets.
On Thursday, the state-run Convergence Energy Ltd. (CESL) launched the biggest tender ever of about Rs. 5,500 crore to produce around 5,580 electric buses which includes 130 double deckers.
CESL is owned fully by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). On thursday CESL announced the floating of a request for proposals for the biggest demand ever for electric buses under the ‘Great Challenge’, a homogenized demand for electric buses has aggregated across five big cities according to a statement. The estimated tender value is said to be Rs. 5,500 crore.
The Great Challenge
The cities that will be covered under the ‘Great Challenge’ are Banglore, Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. This will be the first phase. The first set of e-buses are expected to be on the road by July of this year.
Through the ‘Great Challenge,’ is aiming to deploy around 5,450 single decker buses and 130 double decker buses.
CESL’s Aims
CESL’s purpose is to enhance the support it provides to the state governments in achieving their electric mobility targets and also build a better infrastructure to support electric mobility in the country.
This is seen as a big leap in the series of initiatives started to fulfil the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making India a Net Zero nation by 2050 and achieving Energy Independence by 2047.
“I am pleased to announce today that Delhi has requested 1,500 buses under the Grand Challenge and stands ready to offer state subsidies where they are required. We are aggressively pursuing electric mobility – and I commend CESL for its efforts to standardize the terms and conditions for how this is delivered,” Kailash Gahlot, Transport & Environment Minister of Delhi said.
Benefits of being in the Grand Challenge
There are various benefits to participating in the Grand Challenge which include, lower price realized due to aggregate demand, high quality benchmarked technology, access to FAME-II incentives, access to domestic and international sources of finances.
The changing environment and climate change have brought attention to EVs and CESL and later, this support will expand to more cities.
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