The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to the proposal of the Election Commission (EC) to procure 5,50,000 Ballot Units (BUs) and 5,45,000 Control Units (CUs) during 2016-17 for the upcoming elections.

The purchases would be made from Bharat Electronics Ltd and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd at a tentative cost of Rs 77,000 per unit for BUs and Rs 93,000 per unit for CUs.

“This would facilitate phasing out of obsolete Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) procured during the years 2000-2005, enabling Election Commission to replenish the stock, with view to meeting the requirement of conducting general elections to Lok Sabha and some of the state assemblies due in 2019,” an official statement said.

An EVM normally consists of a Ballot Unit (BU) and a Control Unit (CU), but whenever the number of candidates is more than 16 then another BU can be attached to a CU.

The EVMs were developed at the behest of the Election Commission jointly by the two Public Sector Undertakings, Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad in 1989.