CHENNAI: The city may soon get a new way to experience its streets from above. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has proposed introducing open-roof electric double-decker buses as part of its plan to procure 20 electric double-decker buses, marking a first for the city’s public transport system.
Under the revised request for proposal (RFP), the corporation is planning to procure, operate and maintain 20 double-decker electric buses, comprising 16 air-conditioned buses and four non-air-conditioned open-roof buses, along with the development of allied electric and civil infrastructure under a gross cost contract (GCC) model. The move shows a shift in how the city’s transport utility is planning premium and experiential bus services, alongside its ongoing push to electrify its fleet.
As per the RFP, the concession period has been fixed at 12 years, with an assured operation of 4,500 km per air-conditioned double-decker bus per month. Operators will be paid on a per-km basis, with responsibilities extending beyond running services to include procurement, maintenance, and the creation of charging infrastructure.
The corporation has also kept the option open to scale up the fleet by up to 25 per cent within a year of awarding the contract, indicating that the initial deployment could serve as a pilot for a larger rollout.
The February tender replaces an earlier request for proposal issued in January, which envisaged only air-conditioned double-decker electric buses. The inclusion of open-roof buses in the revised document reflects a conscious broadening of the service mix. The evaluation framework has also been fine-tuned, with bids now assessed on a weighted average per-km fee, instead of a single uniform rate, to account for the differing operational profiles of air-conditioned and open-roof services.
Under the Chennai City Partnership programme supported by the World Bank, electric buses are being introduced on performance-based gross cost contracts to improve urban mobility and service quality.
Chennai has a long history of double-decker bus operations. The services were first introduced in the 1970s but were discontinued in the 1980s. They were reintroduced in 1997 and operated on the 18A route between the High Court and Tambaram until 2008, before being withdrawn once again.