Government pushes Electrical Mobility on roads

The Minister of State for Road Transport, Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday informed that in order to promote the electrical mobility sector, the Government has notified for retro-fitment of hybrid electric system or electric kit to vehicles and has specified the type approval procedure of electric hybrid vehicles.

The Government has also notified that the registration mark for Battery Operated Vehicles to be on a Green background Plate.  For the benefit of the age group of 16-18 years, mainly school/ tuition students, Ministry has notified certain specifications for the grant of license to drive gearless E scooters/ Bikes upto 4.0 KW. A policy on charging infrastructure has been issued by Ministry of Power which clarifies that charging electric vehicles will be a service, not a sale of electricity. Further to combat increasing air pollution in Delhi, Ministry of Finance has issued advisory to all Ministries/ Departments that they may aim to replace all petrol/diesel hired cars in their offices by electric cars.

In this regard, The National Institute for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) has also taken an initiative to provide a Model Concessionaire Agreement (MCA) document for introducing Electric-Bus Fleet in Cities for Public Transportation on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode on Operational Expenditure Model (per km basis) rather than paying upfront capital cost. Further, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has made an amendment in the Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines to provide for electric vehicle charging stations in private and commercial buildings.

In a separate written reply, Mandaviya informed the House that the Government is planning to set up 11 emergency landing strips on National Highways in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These landing facilities will allow aircraft to land in case of emergencies/ natural disasters.