Comments
The Telangana government is in talks with leading automotive companies to procure 1,000 electric vehicles for deployment in Hyderabad. It is in discussions with Sun Mobility for battery-swapping solutions.
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries, Telangana, said: “The State government is keen on promoting electric vehicles and is engaged in talks with big original equipment manufactures to procure about 1,000 vehicles for deployment in Hyderabad.
“We are also in discussions with Sun Mobility to so that they could offer battery swapping solutions to electric vehicles. The setting up of a chain of battery charging centres and battery swapping facilitate would add to to the convenience of Electric Vehicle users.”
Charging station
Speaking after the launch of the country’s first public charging station set up by IndianOil in partnership with the Indian arm of Fortum, a Finland-based company, Ranjan said the government would extend special tariff for electricity and GST benefits for the power used for electric mobility.
He said Hyderabad Metro rail would also play a vital role in popularising electric vehicles. Apart from setting up charging stations, they are also in discussions with Uber and Ola and other players to encourage use of electric vehicles for last-mile connectivity to metro commuters.
Lighthouse cities
Ranjan said that the “NITI Aayog has chosen Hyderabad as one of the six lighthouse cities for electric vehicle adoption in the country, which include Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata, as a pilot initiative and we will provide all necessary support to ensure the growth of electric mobility.”
About 200 electric vehicles are in use in the city and it won’t be long before this number goes up, he said.
A lighthouse city will be developed into a live laboratory to conceive, finance and test mobility solutions and be part of the Centre's vision of a shared and connected electric mobility. This will be then replicated.
Electric mobility policy
The State government, which was to announce a separate electric mobility policy on June 29, decided to wait-and-watch. The decision to delay the announcement comes in the wake of rapid changes happening in the sector and the various initiatives the Centre may come up with including the FAME II policy.
The State government had earlier announced procurement of 40 electric buses from Goldstone, in partnership with Chinese company BYD for deployment in RTC and the plan is to increase this number.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.