Chennai’s e-bus expansion has stalled after the Metropolitan Transport Corporation cancelled a tender for 1,000 air-conditioned electric buses and received no bids for another tender covering 220 electric feeder buses, creating a setback for the city’s plans to increase public transport capacity and strengthen Metro connectivity.
MTC cancelled the tender for 1,000 air-conditioned electric buses on Tuesday, citing administrative reasons. The bid-opening date had been extended several times before the cancellation. The tender was issued in March under the gross cost contract model, ahead of the announcement of the Assembly election schedule.
The Tamil Nadu state budget had allocated Rs 500 crore for the procurement of the 1,000 electric buses and for upgrading depot infrastructure needed to accommodate the new fleet. The buses were part of MTC’s plan to expand its fleet in response to growing commuting demand in Chennai.
A separate tender for 220 air-conditioned low-floor electric feeder buses also failed after receiving no bids. The proposed fleet included 70 seven-metre buses and 150 five-metre buses. These vehicles were intended to provide first- and last-mile connectivity to Chennai Metro stations on routes identified by the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Authority and Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.
The feeder services were proposed to operate within a five-kilometre primary influence area of Metro stations. They were also designed as conductorless services, with onboard fare-collection systems. The proposed arrangement would have linked the Metro network with neighbourhoods that are not directly served by stations, while shifting part of the city’s bus operations towards electric vehicles.
The seven-metre buses were required to have at least 13 seats, one wheelchair space and a driver. The five-metre buses were to have 11 seats, one wheelchair space and a driver. The contract specified assured operation of 4,200 kilometres per bus every month. If all 220 buses had been deployed, the fleet would have covered 9.24 lakh bus-kilometres a month.
The latest setbacks follow the cancellation of an earlier tender for 500 electric buses backed by funding from the German development bank KfW. The previous government decided in March to cancel that tender pending KfW approval, which was granted in June. Officials subsequently proposed shifting the procurement model to the gross cost contract model.
The two latest tender outcomes leave both the larger electric-bus procurement and the planned Metro feeder fleet without an immediate deployment schedule in the information available. MTC’s next steps on retendering, administrative approvals and depot upgrades have not been specified in the report.
