Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Volvo are in the race for a Rs 450-crore order for supply of about 1,500 buses to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.
The corporation has received Request for Proposal bids from these companies and will shortly call for financial bids.
“We expect to finalise the tender by January 15,” said J. Purnachander Rao, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director.
In the last round of the corporation’s acquisition, Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors were the major suppliers of 1476 buses.
In this round of acquisition, the corporation has made some changes in its fleet acquisition strategy.
Apart from buying the whole vehicle, it will ask the manufacturers to supply a certain number of bus chassis and will then build the buses at its manufacturing facility here.
Buying the chassis and building the bus on its own is estimated to cost 15-20 per cent cheaper than buying the whole vehicle from the manufacturers.
Structural snag The decision was also taken after the last fleet of busses delivered by Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors had suffered regular structural and mechanical snags during their operation, causing a significant dent on the corporation’s earnings.
APSRTC is expected to follow up this tender with another one later for supply of another 1100 buses, which will be deployed to connect smaller towns in the State.