PARIS: Paris’ public transport operator on Tuesday said it had ordered up to 800 electric buses to take to the streets of the French capital to replace diesel versions and fight smog in the build up to the 2024 Olympics.

Three French engineering firms - Heuliez Bus, Bollore and Alstom - won the tender to supply the buses in deals worth up to €400 million (Dh1.65 billion), the RATP transport operator said.

RATP will buy an equal number of buses from each supplier, it added, describing the tender as the biggest such bus purchase in Europe.

It will begin by buying 150 buses, with the first deliveries expected between the end of 2020 and 2022, it added.

Local authorities in Paris want the French capital to have 100-per cent clean buses by 2025 by using both electricity and biofuels.

“This is a major step for the RATP and a symbol of its ambition to be a key player in the energy transition in the public transport sector,” said RATP chief executive Catherine Guillouard.

“To put them into service, the company is mobilised to meet an industrial challenge within a very short tight deadline,” she added.