Shri R K Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy, has launched the National E-Mobility Programme. The Programme aims to provide an impetus to the entire e-mobility ecosystem including vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure companies, fleet operators, service providers, etc.
The Programme will be implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) which will aggregate demand by procuring electric vehicles in bulk to get economies of scale. These electric vehicles will replace the existing fleet of petrol and diesel vehicles. EESL had procured 10,000 e-vehicles last year and will issue a new tender very soon for 10,000 more e-vehicles to cater to the growing demand. With these 20,000 electric cars, India is expected to save over 5 crore litres of fuel every year leading to a reduction of over 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual CO2 emission.
The Minster congratulated EESL for its new tender of 10,000 e-vehicles and said that it makes sense from point of view of environment and economy both. The per kilometre cost for an electric car is just 85 paisa against Rs 6.5 for normal cars and these would also help us achieve autonomy from expensive petroleum imports, he added.
Calling the installation of 50 lakh LED street lights by EESL “a very impressive milestone for our country”, Shri Singh reiterated the path of energy efficiency that the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chose for the country on the side-lines of Paris Summit in 2015. He said that India aims to develop as a responsible power, with the motto- “Healthier world, healthier country”, and long term goal is to leave behind a better world.
Saying, “The future is electric” the Minister said that in most part of the developed world cooking is electric, and many countries have announced dates to phase out their diesel vehicles. Even our IIT teams have developed electric cooking system and we are going to go electric and go green. He invited the industry to be part of India’s growth story, and said “My message to industry is, come and invest in manufacturing of e-vehicles and batteries”.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Power Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla said that the Government is focusing on creating charging infrastructure and policy framework so that by 2030 more than 30 per cent of vehicles are electricity vehicles. During the programme, it was also highlighted that there would be no need for license for establishing the charging infrastructure in country and the tariff for this would be less than Rs 6.
