EESL arm, WRI join hands to promote e-buses across India

15 Sep 2022 CW Team

As the move towards more sustainable mobility gathers momentum, Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL), a subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), together with the World Resources Institute India (WRI), has been contemplating ways to speed up the deployment of 50,000 electric buses in the country to have them in place by 2030.

The Grand Challenge tender comprises demand for electric buses across five major Indian cities – Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Surat. And the prices realised set a benchmark for public transport, the price point for which may encourage even the smaller cities to adopt electric vehicles.

The rationale behind the move is not just about being environment friendly, Mahua Acharya, MD & CEO, CESL. He insisted on the practicality of the ‘mobility-as-a-service’ business model. Indicating the lowest-ever prices being up to 27% cheaper than diesel-based buses, she explained, “State transport undertakings benefit more from bigger tender buckets as that allows for lower price discovery for procurement and operation of electric buses in India.”

The State Transport segment has been reeling under severe fund shortages and Acharya said the need of the hour is to get in massive capital to bring about a transition to electric buses. She was speaking at the curtain raiser for INSIGHT 2022 on Twitter Spaces along with WRI India CEO O P Agarwal and World Bank Land Transport Specialist Gerald Ollivier about how green financing might spark a sustainable public transportation system in India.

Acharya pointed out that public mobility financing schemes need a different approach. There is a need to bring different financing schemes on board – corporate financing, and structured financing, that can cater to the demand and provide well-suited services, she added.

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