The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has invited bids for hiring 50 electric buses on wet lease for the Thiruvananthapuram zone.

The tender has been floated under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles-II (FAME II) program. The length of the electric buses should be 12 meters.

A wet lease generally means that the lessor will provide the equipment (electric buses) along with crew members, adequate maintenance, and insurance necessary to operate.

The scope of work would include the supply, maintenance, and operation of the contracted non-AC electric buses in compliance with the terms of the fleet deployment program, schedule program, and requirement of KSRTC. The age of the buses should be less than six months from the date of manufacture.

The last date to submit the bids is December 11, 2020, and the pre-bid meeting will take place on November 17, 2020. The opening of technical bids will take place on December 14, 2020.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹2 million (~$27,008) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

The KSRTC will ensure buses running for at least 910,000 km per bus on an average during the entire contract period. The contract tenure will be for 15 years. The range in single charging should be a minimum of 200 km in Kerala’s actual traffic conditions.

The central government will provide ₹5.5 million (~$74,273) per bus as a demand incentive for the operation of one electric bus for a 910,000 km distance.

As per the tender document, 50% of the awarded quantity should be delivered within nine months from the date of the issue of the letter of award (LoA). The entire quantity has to be delivered within 12 months.

To participate in the bidding process, the bidder should be an Indian manufacturer of electric busses having a manufacturing facility in India. The bidder should ensure that all the buses should satisfy minimum technical eligibility criteria notified under the FAME India program at the time of the supply of buses.

If the bidder is an operator, he should produce an authorization letter from the manufacturer of buses offered in the tender.

Regarding the financial criteria, the bidder should have a positive net worth in the last three financial years. In the case of a consortium, all the members should have a positive net worth in the previous three financial years. The bidder’s average annual turnover should be ₹500 million (~$6.7 million) in the last three financial years. In the case of a consortium, all the members should have a combined turnover of ₹500 million ($6.7 million) in the previous three financial years.

Kerala has so far issued tenders for 1,750 electric buses. In December last year, KSRTC floated a tender to procure 250 non-AC electric buses under wet-lease on the OPEX model for the zones of Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Ernakulam. The tender called for 12-meter non-AC electric buses for the three zones. The tender was issued for 100 buses for the Thiruvananthapuram zone, 50 buses for the Kozhikode zone, and 100 buses for the Ernakulam zone.

Previously, KSRTC had issued a tender to lease 1,500 electric buses. It had issued three separate tenders for 500 electric buses for ten years. The three tenders were for three different zones: Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Ernakulam.