In a big move to boost Electric Vehicles in the country, the Centre asked all state and Union Territory governments to convert their fleet of official vehicles from present Internal Combustion mobility for all official purposes.
“Such an action is expected to set an example for the general public and encourage them to switch over to E-Mobility,” the Union Minister for Power R K Singh wrote to all the Chief Ministers and heads of Union Territories. The Minister has written a similar letter to all the Union Ministers and heads of various independent departments to adopt EVs.
The initiative is part of the ongoing GO ELECTRIC CAMPAIGN launched by the Government of India to promote Electric Vehicles (EVs) to meet multiple objectives – attaining the goal of reduction in emission, energy security, and energy efficiency, said a senior officer of the Power Minister.
The Minister has already taken up issues related to Electric Vehicles with State Commissions to resolve the pending issues related to Technical as well as commercial issues so that EVs can be promoted.
During the meeting the Minister laid emphasis on the determination of cost-reflective tariff, setting up of an adequate number of the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forums with consumer representatives.
Earlier Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) –a joint venture company of the Power Ministry had floated a tender to procure 10,000 electric sedan cars along with 4,000 electric vehicle chargers for replacing government vehicles.
The Centre had made the ministry of new and renewable energy a nodal agency for the procurement of these EVs under the government’s faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles in India (FAME) scheme. The government was planning to first replace government vehicles with EVs and subsequently encourage commercial and private vehicle owners to follow the same.