Jaipur: The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) has issued a tender for the third time to procure electric vehicle buses. The corporation plans to acquire 300 electric buses which are to be deployed on routes within the National Capital Region (NCR). Officials said that electric buses will be taken on contract, and bus operators will be paid up to Rs 60 per km. Before this, tenders were invited in Dec 2024 and May 2025. Officials added that the tender for 300 buses is two-fold: one with the infrastructure for charging the buses and the second without charging infrastructure. The corporation aims to procure a total of 900 EVs, which will replace the existing diesel-based fleet used for these routes. For the initial 300 buses, RSRTC has floated the tender, said officials.“Due to the two-fold nature of the tender, we have not received bids as expected till now. The tender has been floated for the 300 EVs that were announced in the state budget. By next month, we’ll be able to understand what the response of the bidders is,” said a senior official.Officials said that by June 2026, RSRTC will replace all its 900 buses currently plying on the Delhi-NCR routes with EV buses complying with the guidelines of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). The corporation is also working on procuring 600 EV buses as part of a central govt scheme, PM E-Drive, for which the state govt has also given the sovereign guarantee, said officials. “The PM E-Drive, which is the scheme of the Department of Heavy Industries, is primarily for intra-city operations, but we have requested the central govt to allow us to procure buses under this scheme due to the requirements, explaining our situation,” said Shubhra Singh, RSRTC chairperson.
