Thiruvananthapuram: KSRTC has begun a tender process to lease 1,500 electric buses floating three separate tenders for 500 each for 10 years.
It plans to take 12-meter non-AC battery-powered buses on wet or dry lease for Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Ernakulam. As per the wet lease, the bidder will have to provide the buses along with a driver while KSRTC will deploy its conductor.
If the bidder opts for a dry lease, KSRTC would have to deploy both the driver and conductor.
Delivery of buses has to start within 45 days from the date of award of the contract, a top source in the KSRTC said.
The electric bus will have to run for a distance of 250 km on a single charge. The bus, when supplied to the KSRTC, should not be more than six months old and it should have a minimum mileage of 1.5 kilowatt-hours/km.
The absolute right to choose between the two lease options or opt for a combination of both was with the KSRTC.
The state targets having one million electric vehicles by 2022, as announced earlier. It had come up with a state electric vehicle policy aiming to reduce carbon footprint.
