Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) is making headlines for awarding a maintenance contract at an unusually high price. The company chosen for this job is Aero Eagle, which will charge ₹94 per kilometre. This rate is significantly higher than the national average of ₹70 per kilometre. Critics are raising concerns about the financial implications of this decision.
AMTS has a long history as one of Asia’s best public transport services. However, the organisation is now facing financial challenges. It relies on loans from the municipal corporation to keep its services running, but this has not stopped allegations of corruption against its officials. Many of these accusations are directed at officers who are posted in Gandhinagar.
The contract awarded to Aero Eagle will amount to ₹1,441 crores over 11 years. Experts warn that this could result in a loss of over ₹200 crores for AMTS. Typically, the maintenance costs for electric buses range between ₹65 to ₹70 per kilometre. The decision to award this contract at ₹94 per kilometre has raised eyebrows.
Aero Eagle is only an assembler of bus parts and does not manufacture its own buses. This has led to questions about why AMTS is not considering larger, more reputable manufacturers like Tata or Ashok Leyland. It appears that AMTS officials have created conditions that favour Aero Eagle exclusively, discouraging competition from other companies.
The central government had previously launched an initiative to collect bids for electric bus operations across various cities. In Gujarat, the average bid for a similar bus was ₹65.5, while states like Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had even lower bids of ₹58.1 and ₹69.05, respectively. This makes the ₹94 rate from Aero Eagle look even more excessive.
Recent tenders in Noida show that the average cost for a 9-metre bus is ₹55, and for a 12-metre bus, it is ₹66. The current tender from AMTS is substantially higher than these rates. There are also issues regarding the qualifications required to bid for this contract. Only 35 buses supplied in two years were needed for qualification, which seems inadequate for such a large contract.
Concerns are mounting about the transparency of this process, especially given that Aero Eagle has only supplied one location with buses for just five months. Many experts believe that there has been significant manipulation in this tendering process.
In conclusion, the decision to award the maintenance contract to Aero Eagle at such a high rate raises serious questions about financial management and transparency within AMTS. The public and authorities will be watching closely as this story develops, hoping for a resolution that benefits the citizens of Ahmedabad.