AMTS to operate 225 electric buses amid huge debt, highest per km rate in country

Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS), burdened by Amdavad Municipal Corporation loans amounting to ₹6,000 crore, has decided to pay ₹94 per kilometre to an agency named Arrow Eagle to operate 225 electric buses. This will be the highest per-kilometre rate paid for electric buses anywhere in the country. 

The plan devised by officials and authorities at AMTS is likely to plunge the agency into deeper financial trouble over the procurement of 225 electric buses. 

Just four months ago, in Gujarat’s Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) tender for 9-metre-long electric buses, the quoted rate was ₹65.5 per kilometre. 

Per kilometre rates in other states 

• Madhya Pradesh- ₹58.1
• Maharashtra- ₹69.05
• Rajasthan- ₹60.09  
• Haryana- ₹65 
• Andhra Pradesh-  ₹62.2 
• Uttarakhand-  ₹57.6
• Puducherry- ₹63.9 
• Chhattisgarh-  ₹62 
• Ladakh-  ₹71 
• Meghalaya-  ₹65 
• Bihar- ₹62.7 
• Punjab- ₹65.9 

Even the Janmarg project, just six months ago, had finalised a rate of ₹72 per kilometre for 12-metre-long buses.

All these rates are substantially lower than what AMTS has now agreed to pay. According to sources, the agency selected to operate and maintain these 225 buses has only existed for two years. Moreover, penalties for issues such as fewer deployed buses or service failures have been capped at merely 10%, raising further concerns.

Given AMTS’s ever-increasing debt burden on the municipal corporation, former municipal commissioner, the late Guruprasad Mohapatra, had once remarked, “Why even run it? Just shut the organisation down and lock its doors.”

Also read:

₹682 cr AMTS draft budget for 2025-26, dept debt stands at ₹4620.77 cr