Nagpur: Acting tough over enormous delay, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has put the Hyderabad-based Evey Trans Pvt Ltd on final notice and asked the firm to deliver 40 electric buses by November 15 or face the penalty. The NMC, in an ultimatum, warned the company that it will start levying 0.1% fine per day against its performance guarantee of Rs 1.68 crore, sources said adding, the civic body will not grant any extension for delivery of the e-buses.
According to sources, as per the agreement, Evey Trans Pvt Ltd was supposed to deliver the electric buses in two lots but it has already delayed the delivery. Sources added that the firm is under the pressure to deliver e-buses to Mumbai and Pune cities that have placed bigger orders.
The Hyderabad-based company, Evey Trans Pvt Ltd, should have delivered the first lot of 25 e-buses by September 20 as per Letter of Acceptance ((LOA). The second lot of 15 e-buses is supposed to be delivered by November 19, sources in the Transport Department said. The NMC signed a MoU with the firm to operate the e-buses.
In the final ultimatum to the firm, the NMC’s Transport Manager and Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ravindra Bhelave pointed out that the first lot of 25 electric buses should have been delivered within 390 days from the date of LOA and for the remaining 15 buses, the time period was 450 days.
So far, sources said, NMC has received Rs 3.60 crore (out of Rs 18 crore) as it had shortlisted 40 midi e-buses and will receive Rs 45 lakh subsidy for each bus. The civic body will receive second and third installments of Rs 7.2 crore each after 40 e-buses are inducted in its fleet. The midi bus purchased from the firm costs around Rs 1.49 crore each and the cost of procuring all e-buses comes to around Rs 60 crore.
It may be recalled, tThe Central Government had approved purchase of over 5000 electric buses for reducing air pollution in big cities including Nagpur. Following the decision, a move to purchase 100 electric buses for NMC was initiated by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
A grant of around Rs 45 lakh per bus is being provided. However, unable to deal with its present financial crisis, the BJP-ruled NMC decided to lose 60 electric buses being sponsored by the Central Government.
