Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS), already under heavy debt of ₹6,000 crore borrowed from the Amdavad Municipal Corporation, has decided to pay ₹94 per kilometre to a private agency named Arrow Eagle to operate 225 electric buses — the highest rate for electric buses anywhere in India.
According to a media report, this move has raised concerns about worsening AMTS’s financial crisis. Just four months ago, a similar tender by Gujarat’s Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) quoted ₹65.5 per kilometre for 9-metre electric buses.
In comparison, other states are paying much lower rates:
- 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 BRTS project in Ahmedabad had fixed a rate of ₹72/km for 12-metre buses just six months ago.
Questions have also been raised about Arrow Eagle, the agency awarded the contract. It has only been in existence for two years, and the penalty for service issues — like not running enough buses — is capped at just 10%.
With AMTS’s growing financial burden, some critics are questioning whether the transport body can sustain itself. The late former municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra had once commented, “Why even run it?”t shut the organisation down and lock its doors.”