Articulated buses on Ahmedabad's BRTS

Technically called the ‘articulated bus’, these buses are 18-meter long and can seat 130 passengers. Each of these new BRTS caterpillar buses will cost close to Rs 1.2 crore.
In the next two weeks, the special 11-member committee on ‘Urban Bus’ of the union urban development ministry will come out with a detailed specifications for these buses. There are articulated buses running in Chennai, but they are not fit to run on BRTS corridor.
Though Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL) had sought Expression of Interest (EOI) from bus manufacturers globally, two companies Corona bus and Chartered bus had responded. These EOIs have been set aside as the AJL is expecting a standard bus design from the union ministry of urban development.
 A senior AJL official said: “The special committee will come up with a standard bus design specification for all cities in two weeks. We’re waiting for the standard caterpillar bus specifications from the Union ministry and then we will prepare a fresh tender again asking for the new EOI.”
Sources say that the standard bus design involves 900mm height and would cost Rs 1.2 crore per bus. “At present, we would want just two buses and would run them during peak hours. Literally, no one makes 900mm articulated buses. The designs that we received were of 800 mm and 650mm height. This was not feasible for our BRTS corridor.