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KSRTC to lease 1,500 electric buses

Three separate tenders to be called for 500 buses each.

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.

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