Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, in a meeting with the representatives of Electric Vehicles (EV) Manufacturing Companies here on Thursday, asked them to make Himachal specific prototype electric buses for the state in time bound manner.

The EV buses should be made keeping in mind various parameters like hilly terrain, loading capacity and luggage space, he added, asking the companies to incorporate modern technology and ensure quality.

Advertisement

To achieve the goal of making Himachal Pradesh a ‘Green Energy State’ by the year 2025 and to reduce the carbon emission, the state government intends to replace the fleet of diesel buses of HRTC with electric buses in a phased manner and intends to ply e-buses on inter district routes.

The Chief Minister said a committee would be constituted to decide all the modalities and specifications for the proto type e-buses under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary.

The state government is committed to provide best and comfortable transportation services to the people of the state.

He said that state government is making earnest efforts to preserve and conserve the environment of the state and switching over to e-vehicles would be a milestone in this direction.

The state government was planning to make Parwanoo-Nalagarh-Una-Hamirpur-Nadaun-Dehra highway as a ‘Clean and Green’ corridor and necessary infrastructure would be created in this regard, said Sukhu.

State Transport Department is the first such department in the Country to switch over to electrical vehicles and it is the mandate of the state government that other departments would also be provided e-vehicles in a phased manner, he added.