Indian union minister Piyush Goyal has said that officials and state firms under the power, coal, renewable energy and mines ministries will now start using electric vehicles. The move has been aimed towards propelling and boosting the usage of electric vehicles across the country.
The government has already set the wheels in motion and will soon invite tenders for the bulk supply of these vehicles for its ministries and public sector undertakings located in Delhi.
Tenders for about 1,200 vehicles for offices of various departments in Delhi will give the first push to the electric vehicles market.
Mr. Goyal also said that the government had already taken concrete steps and that it was working on creating fast-charging stations for e-vehicles. He also said that as far as buses were concerned, the government was planning to deploy a system wherein a used battery would be replaced with a charged one.
The government is also preparing guidelines for tenders that will seek procurement of electric city buses without batteries.
Public enterprises like NTPC, Power Grid Corp and Coal India will also put charging stations in their parking lots. The government hopes that this will allow an increase in the number of vehicles and also decrease the cost.
The programme will make e-vehicles affordable than the conventional vehicles and people will automatically shift to electrical vehicles.
The government already has plans to offer limited tax breaks for e-vehicle manufacturing. Meanwhile, the move to get government officials to start using e-vehicles is certainly a smart one and could well see greater adaption across the country.
