Viana do Castelo, Portugal, Aug. 5, 2024 (Lusa) - The Viana do Castelo local council, situated in the north west of Portugal, has launched a public tender for the purchase of 17 electric buses for €7.15 million, with a view to guaranteeing a public urban transport service from 2025 onwards.
The announcement of the tender, consulted on Monday by Lusa, was published on Friday in the official government gazette and the deadline for submitting bids is 30 August.
The buses are divided into three lots and the "maximum number of lots that can be awarded to one bidder" is three, according to the publication.
In July, at the town hall meeting that approved the acquisition, the cost-benefit study, presented by the Councillor for Mobility, Fabíola Oliveira, indicated that "the scenarios [of continuing the concession or insourcing the service to the town hall] are favourable for the town hall to take over as the internal operator, with or without funding" from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
The mayor, Luís Nobre, stressed that "the starting conditions" for drawing up the cost-benefit study of the transport service "are the same for the option of insourcing the service as for continuing the concession".
The Socialist mayor emphasised that "the data that enabled the study to be carried out was provided by the current operator", adding that it was "clear evidence that, in any circumstance, the financial impact on the public purse is always 50% less".
Luís Nobre guaranteed that the decision to insource the urban transport service "is not against anyone" (referring to the operator that holds the concession), but "for the people of Viana and for the environment", in line with "the decarbonisation strategy" defended by the municipality.
The current concession contract for the public passenger transport service was signed between the municipality and Transcunha - Transportes Rodoviários de Viana, Lda., part of the Avic group, by public deed in 2015, and ends in September 2025.
The international public tender for the purchase of the vehicles is divided into three lots, the first for 10 'standard' buses (10-12.5 metres long), worth €4,700,000, the second for five 'midi' buses (7-8.5 metres) budgeted at €1,899,000 and two 'mini' buses (up to 6 metres long), for an investment of €558,000.
According to the approved proposal, "the municipality of Viana do Castelo intends to develop 'Operation Green Bus' in order to establish a public passenger transport service under its responsibility made up entirely of clean buses", having submitted an application under the public transport decarbonisation programme (PRR).
In June, the Viana do Castelo council decided to change the staffing map to hire 25 drivers to take over the operation of public transport in the urban area, estimating an annual wage bill of €800,000.
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