Chennai MTC to get 625 electric buses from July; to buy 600 more in second phase
3,000 new buses to hit TN roads, 746 of them CNG;
CHENNAI: Transport Minister SS Sivasankar on Wednesday announced that tenders would be floated for the procurement of 3,000 new buses, including 746 CNG buses, soon.
Replying to a debate on the demand for grants for the Transport department, he said the government planned procurement of 11,907 new buses through the funding support from the German funding agency Kfw, the World Bank, the special area development programme and the state government. "Of this, 3,778 new buses have already been inducted into the fleet, and 3,468 new buses will be added to the fleet by March 2026," he said.
Providing the breakup of the procurement, Sivasankar said the state government announced the procurement of a total of 5,000 buses at Rs 2,401 crore from 2022-23 to 2024-25. Of them, 3,210 buses were added to the fleet, and the rest will be added soon. Under the KfW funding, he said that the 552 low-floor buses were added to the fleet of the KfW, and a tender has been floated for the procurement of 1,614 diesel buses and 500 electric buses.
Under the World Bank-funded scheme, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) would get 1,225 electric buses under a Gross Cost Contract (GCC) basis. In the first phase, the MTC would get 625 electric buses from July this year, while a tender has been floated to procure 600 more in the second phase. Under the GCC model, the private company would be paid a fixed cost per km of bus operation, and it would deploy the driver and maintain the bus. The MTC will specify the bus route and appoint conductors to collect ticket fares.
He noted that the chief minister also ordered the procurement of another 3,000 buses this year, including 746 CNG-fueled buses to combat air pollution. "Altogether, 8129 new buses would be added in the coming years," he said.
In the policy note of the Transport Department, the Minister said in addition to the 11,907 buses, it would also procure 9,161 new buses, including 7,661 diesel/CNG buses and 1,500 electric buses under the KfW buses in various phases.