SLTB's 200 Electric Buses Stalled Since 2024 Over a Fake Bond — Why No Retender Yet?

In 2020 the Cabinet approved buying 200 electric buses for SLTB to run in Colombo and Gampaha, aimed at cutting diesel imports and pollution. Ten companies picked up the tender documents, but only one actually bid, and that bid was thrown out for submitting a fake performance bond. The Auditor General's report, released this October, says the procurement was terminated back in July 2024 and nothing has replaced it since: no retender, no fallback plan, nothing on the road. One side says this proves state agencies shouldn't run big-ticket EV purchases themselves, too much red tape, and one bad bidder can freeze the whole thing for years. The other side says the real problem was a narrow tender that scared off genuine competition in the first place, and a cleaner process open to more suppliers would have had buses running long ago. Would you trust SLTB to run an electric bus fleet at all, or should public transport electrification go to private operators instead? If you've dealt with a government tender yourself, vehicles or anything else, did you see the same one-bidder trap? රජයේ විදුලි බස් ව්‍යාපෘතිය අවුරුදු 2කට වැඩි කාලයක් නැවතිලා තියෙනවා. ඇයි මේ තරම් කාලයක් බලාගෙන ඉන්නේ?