Respite for passengers as TN set to buy 3,000 new buses to replace overaged vehicles

CHENNAI: The Institute of Road Transport has floated bids to procure 3000 new buses to replace overaged buses in the next financial year.

The IRT has notified the tender to procure 1,138 mofussil buses chassis and construction of bus body building separately.

In another tender notification, the IRT has invited bids from manufacturers for the procurement of 1,190 town chassis and 672 fully built low-floor buses.

However, the breakdown of the number of buses to be allotted to each of the eight state transport undertakings including the Metropolitan Transport Corporation is not available.

"Happy to share that the tender for the procurement of 3000 buses announced in the budget is published today. As the induction of new buses progresses, the overaged buses will get replaced during the next financial year, " Phanindra Reddy, additional chief secretary, the Transport Department wrote in a social media post.

All eight STUs together have a fleet of 21,200 diesel buses, making it India's largest bus operator. However, the primary concern is the presence of overaged buses in the state coupled with an existing need to expand the bus fleet to provide for an increasing population and travel demand, sources said.

To address this situation, the state government has drawn up a comprehensive bus transport modernisation program with a fleet replacement for over 9,500 overaged buses to be replaced with new BS VI buses and a fleet expansion which targets to introduce 2,000 new electric vehicles into the fleet.

The procurement of the new buses has come at a time with a deadline to retire more than 15-year-old buses falling on September 30, 2024.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had stipulated that all government-owned vehicles which are more than 15 years old should be scrapped from April 1, 2023. However, the state government has allowed the operation of the vehicles till September this year considering the public transport.