Govt orders 1k electric buses, to check their feasibility: CM
NEW DELHI: In future the Delhi government will buy only electric buses and this time the government has ordered 1,000 electric buses out of 3,000 to check the implementation and feasibility of the future plans, asserted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday. The CM said, "Delhi government is fully committed to taking bold steps to fight air pollution and like the odd-even scheme, is ready to make all necessary efforts to transition the transport sector in Delhi to Electric Vehicles."
Several industry leaders and experts in Electric mobility on Tuesday hailed the draft Electric Vehicle Policy 2018 of the Delhi government as the best in India, amidst a day-long series of stakeholder consultations organised on the draft policy.
The consultation was organised by the Delhi government's Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal was the chief guest and inaugurated the consultations in the presence of Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, DDC Vice Chairperson Jasmine Shah and Commissioner (Transport) Varsha Joshi.
Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said that Delhi government has already made the commitment to induct 1,000 fully electric buses, more than anywhere in India, and the ambitious draft Delhi EV policy is a further step to establish Delhi as the EV capital of India. Gahlot further highlighted that the draft policy strongly supports the creation of a high density charging infrastructure, which is a key enabler for rapid adoption of electric vehicles.
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor at IIT Madras and former Advisor to Government of India on Electric Vehicle Policy, also hailed Delhi government's EV policy as the best India has seen so far, and emphasized the need for innovation and better research so as to bring price parity between conventional and electric vehicles.
All major automobile manufacturers, especially in two-wheelers and three-wheeler segment, which is the focus of Delhi's Electric Vehicle Policy, attended the stakeholder consultation such as Hero, Mahindra, TVS, Kinetic, Bajaj etc.
Industry association such as Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and Society for Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), fleet operators like Ola, Uber, Smart E, Gati etc also participated in the event.
A dedicated consultation was also organised with members from civil society and citizen groups, which was attended by CEW, CSE, TERI, ICLEI, URJA, among the others.
