Contents
Core Principle
This tracker uses only public data. No confidential employer data, no proprietary research, no insider information. Every record is sourced from a publicly accessible document or portal, and that source is recorded alongside the data.
This tracker is not affiliated with any government agency, OEM, STU, bus operator, charging company, or financial institution. It is an independent public-source intelligence service.
1. Data Sources
Records in this tracker come from the following primary source types:
| Source Type | Examples | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Government tender portals | CESL (convergence.co.in/tender), GeM, state STU portals | High |
| Official tender PDFs | RFQ/RFP documents from CESL, DIMTS, APSRTC, etc. | High |
| Stock exchange filings | BSE/NSE order announcements, quarterly results, investor presentations | High |
| Government press releases | MHI, MoRTH, PM e-Bus Sewa scheme notifications | High |
| OEM disclosures | Annual reports, investor presentations, press releases | Medium |
| Vahan analytics | vahan.parivahan.gov.in — monthly registration data by maker/category | High |
| Trade press | ET Auto, Business Standard, EV Reporter, Clean Technica India | Medium |
| Manual review | Hand-curated from multiple public sources with cross-verification | Medium |
2. Collection Method
Automated scrapers
Automated scripts run daily to collect data from:
- CESL tender portal — scans for new tenders and updates to existing ones
- BSE India API — monitors announcements from tracked OEMs (Olectra, JBM Auto, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors) for e-bus signals
- Vahan analytics — monthly scrape of electric bus registration data by maker
Manual data entry
Deployment history, OEM profiles, and state-level aggregates are manually curated
from annual reports, press releases, and tender documents. Each record carries a
last_checked_at date.
Triage and staging
BSE announcements are automatically staged for review. A triage pipeline classifies each announcement as: order (bus count confirmed), press release (deployment update), tender (new or corrigendum), or boilerplate (financial filings, routine disclosures). Only classified non-boilerplate items are surfaced.
3. Procurement Stage Definitions
These terms have precise meanings in the context of this tracker. Do not treat them interchangeably.
| Stage | Definition | Data needed to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Sanctioned | Government has approved a programme budget and bus allocation for a state/city. | Government scheme notification, press release from MHI/MoRTH |
| Tendered | A formal RFQ/RFP/tender has been issued for bus procurement or operations. | Tender document from official portal (CESL, GeM, state STU) |
| Awarded | A bus operator or OEM has been selected via bid evaluation. Award announced publicly. | Official award notification or OEM BSE disclosure |
| LoA Issued | Letter of Award issued to the winning bidder. | BSE disclosure, press release, or tender portal update |
| Delivered | Buses physically handed over to the operator at a depot. | OEM press release, government handover event, or operator confirmation |
| Registered | Buses registered with the state RTO and visible in Vahan database. | Vahan data |
| Operational | Buses in service on public routes, confirmed by operator or credible source. | Operator press release, media coverage with specifics, government report |
| Cancelled | Tender, order, or deployment officially cancelled. | Official tender portal update or OEM disclosure |
Records in this tracker only use "operational" when that stage is confirmed. Most deployment data reflects "delivered" or "registered" status. Unconfirmed stages are labelled with their confidence level.
4. Tender Status Logic
Tender statuses are computed as follows:
- Open: Bid deadline is in the future and no award or cancellation is recorded.
- Closing Soon: Bid deadline is within 7 days.
- Extended: A corrigendum has extended the original bid deadline — confirmed by source.
- Needs Review: Bid deadline has passed but no award, extension, or cancellation is recorded. This does not mean the tender is invalid — it may have been extended without public notice yet.
- Awarded: Award data confirmed from official source or OEM disclosure.
- Cancelled: Cancellation confirmed from official source.
- Closed: Bid deadline passed and the process is confirmed complete (no award made public).
Expired tenders are never shown as Open. If a bid deadline has passed without confirmed extension, the status is set to Needs Review — not Open.
5. Confidence Scores
Every record carries a confidence label. This reflects how reliable the underlying source data is — not whether the event happened. A low-confidence record may be accurate; it just came from a source that was harder to verify.
Official source (government portal, stock exchange filing, tender PDF). Data is specific, recent, and directly verifiable.
Credible secondary source (trade press, OEM press release, annual report). Some interpretation required or cross-verification pending.
Indirect source, incomplete data, or unverified inference. Use with caution — check original source before relying on this data.
Source not yet reviewed or not publicly available. Field value may be estimated or derived.
Confidence scores (0–100) are also assigned where possible. These are heuristic — they do not represent statistical certainty. A score of 85 means the record is likely accurate based on source quality and recency.
6. Limitations
- This tracker covers publicly available data only. Confidential terms, LOA amounts, or undisclosed extensions will not appear.
- Vahan registration data has a known delay of 1–2 months. Registration counts may undercount fleets that register in batches.
- Deployment data relies on public disclosures. Not all cities with e-buses have made public announcements.
- State STU tender portals are not uniformly scraped. Only CESL is automated. Other tenders are added manually as discovered.
- OEM bus counts are "known deployed" from public sources — actual fleet sizes may differ from total produced or registered.
- Corrigenda and deadline extensions are sometimes published only on tender portals without press coverage. Check source portals for latest status before making decisions.
7. Disclaimer
Not affiliated with any government agency, OEM, STU, bus operator, charging company, or employer. Any similarities to proprietary research are coincidental.
The maintainer of this tracker is a private individual. Data is provided as-is, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. The tracker is not responsible for any decisions made based on data published here.
Found a data error? Know of a tender not listed? Contact us to improve the data quality.
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