BEST, MSRTC making headway in procurement of AC e-buses

Mumbai's public transport bodies, BEST and MSRTC, will soon receive a total of 25,150 eco-friendly electric buses from Olectra Greentech. The buses will be supplied over the next 24 months and will contribute to the region's aim of greener transportation.

Mumbai: Two of the largest and most important public transport bodies of the region will see an inflow of eco-friendly electric buses soon. The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) will get 20 new air-conditioned electric buses from Olectra Greentech (part of a larger consignment of 2,100 AC e-buses).

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On Friday, the same automobile manufacturing company and its consortium bagged an order for 5,150 AC e-buses at a cost of ₹10,000 crore that will be supplied to Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).

According to sources, the BEST will get 20 Olectra-made AC e-buses in the next fortnight. These are part of the 2,100 AC e-buses for BEST Undertaking over which the Supreme Court (SC) had dismissed a plea earlier this May. “We will be supplying these 20 AC e-buses to BEST this month. These shall arrive in lots of 10 buses each. We had already supplied 20 of these buses in the past. We expect that in the coming months, our commitment of supplying 2100 e-buses will be fulfilled,” said sources in Olectra Greentech which had bagged the order at a value of ₹3,675 crore.

These 2,100 AC e-buses are expected to all be delivered by mid-2024. The BEST already has around 410 e-buses both owned and on wet-lease, out of their total fleet of 3,155 buses. The Undertaking has 12 AC e-double-decker buses in its fleet and is expecting this to touch 200 buses soon. Moreover, sources in BEST said that they are also working on adding 2-400 AC e-buses in future and thus taking their total fleet to over 7,000 buses.

The Maharashtra Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) placed an order for 5,150 state-of-the-art AC e-buses on July 7 and a letter of intent (LoI) has been awarded to Olectra Greentech and EVEY Trans. They will supply, operate and maintain these e-buses, along with setting up necessary electrical and civil infrastructure for a period of 12 years at a cost of ₹10,000 crore. The probable cost of each e-bus comes to around ₹1.5 to 1.8 crore.

“The delivery of these e-buses is scheduled over the course of 24 months. The fleet will consist of 2,800 twelve-meter AC buses, designed for heavy traffic routes, and 2,350 nine-meter AC buses suitable for routes with lighter traffic. All these buses will be equipped for intercity travel, with seating capacities of 44 and 32 passengers for the twelve-meter and nine-meter buses respectively,” said an official from MSRTC.

Currently around 55 lakh passengers on a daily average use our 14,000 buses across the state primarily powered by diesel or CNG. Of the existing buses, only around 60 are electric, making this order a substantial leap towards greener transportation. By July 2025, MSRTC aims to convert over 33% of its fleet into pollution-free e-buses. The first batch of 150 buses is expected to be delivered by March 2023.

E-buses for MSRTC

₹10,000 crore: Cost of e-buses

2,800: 12m AC e-buses

2,350: 9m AC e-buses

Charging Time for both 12m and 9m e-buses: <4hrs

12m bus seating capacity: 43 & 9m bus seating capacity: 30

Deployment Time: 24 months

E-buses for BEST:-

₹3675 crore: Cost of e-buses

2,100: Total e-buses