Shimla: While Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation is gearing up to purchase 85 electric buses to facilitate Shimla and Dharamshala, a Mumbai-based lawyer has questioned the tendering process. He has alleged changes in terms and conditions to avoid competition and favour certain parties by buying their vehicles at much higher prices, causing illegal gains to them and huge loss to the government.Mumbai-based advocate Raghunath B Mahabal lodged a written complaint with governor Acharya Devvrat, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur , chief secretary B K Agarwal, principal secretary (Transport) Jagdish Chander and principal secretary (Vigilance) Sanjay Kundu in this regard.Refuting the allegations, chief general manager (HRTC) H K Gupta said the tender document was prepared by a committee of officials after studying documents of other states. He said the AMC is not required now as the company supplying the bus will have its own set-up on HRTC premises to look after maintenance of buses as part of the 6-year warranty of electric components.“After purchasing 25 electric buses previously, we now have the manpower and expertise to maintain electric buses, so we don’t need to have AMC with companies by spending a huge amount,” he said. He also said buses being purchased have good battery mileage and latest technology.Gupta said the tendering process, in which seven reputed firms participated, was transparent. He said one company quoted the highest price of over Rs 1.45 crore and another quoted Rs 76.97 lakh. In the past, electric buses were purchased for Rs 1.91 crore each. To ensure that the company does not back out of terms and conditions specified in the tender document, 10% of the project value has been kept as bank guarantee to be used as surety.Transport minister Govind Singh Thakur said the process of purchasing electric buses is transparent as the state government is committed to provide emission-free transportation system in Shimla and Dharamshala in the first phase and other parts of state in the later stages.He said 50 buses are being purchased for Shimla while 35 buses will be purchased for Dharamshala, for which tendering process has already been started. According to the minister, the tendering process adopted by Himachal Pradesh to ensure purchase of electric buses has become an example for all.

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