BEST meeting with Switch Mobility today to review delivery of electric buses

BEST GM Vijay Singhal said he has called a meeting of officials of Switch Mobility, which has to supply 200 buses on wet lease

MUMBAI: Senior officials of Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) will meet with Switch Mobility officials on Tuesday to review the supply of electric buses to Mumbai. The firm was to supply 200 electric double-decker buses to BEST on a wet lease but supplied only 12.

BEST general manager Vjay Singhal said the notice to the private firm should have been issued much earlier (ANI File/Twitter)

The meeting comes a day after BEST issued show cause notice to another company contracted to supply 700 buses to the city, Causis E-Mobility.

Officials said Mumbai’s public transport undertaking awarded a tender for the supply of 900 double-decker electric buses to two firms, of which Causis E-Mobility was to provide 700.

“Causis has neither supplied buses nor the prototype as per the contract. Hence, a blacklisting notice has been served to the company today. Legal action is also being planned,” BEST general manager Vjay Singhal told reporters on Monday, according to news agency PTI.

BEST will issue a fresh tender for 700 buses and request the government to recover the difference from Causis if the rates quoted are higher than the contracted amount.

(With PTI inputs)