The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has issued a show-cause notice to PMI Electro Mobility Options, a Haryana based electric bus manufacturing company, for failing to deliver 14 air-conditioned electric buses.
As per agreement, the company was supposed to deliver total 24 air-conditioned electric buses till August, but it provided only 10.
As the company failed to deliver the buses, a show-cause notice was served on the firm, said a senior official from NMC’s transport department. The firm has now promised to deliver 24 electric buses in September, the official added.
In 2022, after receiving INR 72 crore grant under 15th finance commission, the NMC had entrusted the company with an order to deliver 144 air-conditioned electric buses. Apart from providing and operating 144 electric buses, PMI is supposed to develop a mother charging depot at Wathoda, work for which is under progress, the official added.
As per the delivery schedule, the PMI is supposed to complete the delivery of all buses to the NMC by December end. “If the company misses the September deadline, then NMC will start imposing penalties,” said the official citing the terms and conditions of the memorandum of understanding between the PMI and NMC.
At present, the NMC is operating 388 buses (90 standard diesel buses, 34 CNG, 131 midi diesel, 42 mini diesel and 91 electric buses) on 191 routes covering about 80,000km combined each day. The average daily ridership of Aapli Bus service is around INR 1.18 lakh.
