DTC: Return to tender
The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) issued a global tender on January 8, 2001, inviting technical bids for conversion of its diesel buses to compressed Natural Gas (CNG). The bid closed on March 9. None of the five applicants meet the technical criteria of obtaining all the relevant certificates from testing agencies, said Rakesh Mehta, chairperson and managing director of DTC: "I am going to the board of DTC to ask for at least another month or so for the five parties who have applied to the tender for conversion of buses to CNG.'
None of the five applicants have been awarded the tender. "Unless the technical bids are cleared, we can't progress to opening the price bids,' Mehta said. He isn't sure how these companies will obtain the relevant certification, considering the way testing agencies have been delaying the process for Rare Technologies, a company that converts diesel buses to CNG. Rare Technologies had converted a few buses way back in March 1999. The company has not been able to renew its provisional certificate that expired in December 1999. The bus converted by them is yet to complete tests at the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun.
The certification and pricing processes are rife with problems. The tender makes it mandatory for companies to have certification from the Union ministry of surface transport (MOST) by March 9, 2001. The tender states that the "offer without valid type approval test certificates from the statutory testing institutes and non-compliance with MOST's notification dated February 9, 2000 or latest, shall be summarily rejected.' The only company that has all the relevant certificates is Nugas, whose owner is close to the Congress party, which is in power in Delhi. On the price front, the tender requires the successful bidder to remit a bank guarantee amounting to 10 per cent as performance guarantee. Two of the bidders feel that the terms of payment in the tender are very ambiguous and DTC can get away without paying money to the converting agency for an unlimited period of time.
The five companies that bid for the tender are:
• Hindustan Motors, based in Calcutta
• VIP Buildcon, based in Delhi. It collaborates with BT Diesel Gas of New Zealand.
• Cummins Auto Services Ltd, based in Delhi
• Ashok Leyland, based in Chennai
• Vishwanath, a Calcutta-based company.
VIP Buildcon claims it has converted a diesel engine used by DTC to CNG in February 2001. But the engine is waiting for testing at the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun. The company, which claims to have the relevant certification from agencies in New Zealand, has written two letters to MOST requesting that some of the tests for certification be waived. There has been no response. In one of the letters, the company wrote, "It would appear to us that although the engine testing and the testing of the CNG storage system are justified, the balance of the tests are superfluous. While the extensive engine tests can be completed in two or three days, other tests will take from six to eight weeks.
According to David Young of BT Diesel Gas of New Zealand, VIP Buildcon can convert only Hino engines that were fitted to Ashok Leyland buses. But, most of the buses plying on Delhi roads are TELCO make, fitted with the TATA 697 engine, which is not a very good engine for conversion to CNG. In fact, in its reply to the Down To Earth questionnaire, TELCO says that its research and development wing advises against converting this engine to CNG.