kolkata: In a major push to encourage the use of electric vehicles, the state Transport department has given a nod to various government departments for hiring electric vehicles for their daily work. However, prior concurrence of the Finance department is required.
The monthly hiring charges for electric vehicles will be Rs 46,000 for upto 100 km per day. Extra payment of Rs 8 per km will be made for extra runs beyond 100 km.
A notification issued by Secretary of Transport department Saumitra Mohan states that express permission of the Finance department shall also be required for hiring of vehicles of categories other than non air-conditioned motor cab and Maruti omni.
Petrol driven vehicles may also be hired by government departments without special permission of the Finance department.
“The move is aimed at switching over to clean fuel to reduce the use of fossil fuel. Moreover, with more and more electric vehicles being introduced in the market, we have fixed the rate,” a senior official of the Transport department said.
In order to cater to an order by the judiciary regarding phasing out of vehicles that are over 15 years old, some 20,000 odd vehicles will be phased out by this year. This may lead to a crisis in the availability of vehicles and so, the push for electric vehicles assumes significance.
The state Transport department is working under the objective of zeroing out petrol and diesel vehicles by the year 2030. The state government had earlier taken electric vehicles on hiring basis. However, there was no fixed rate.
This move will ensure that neither the government department nor the agency from which these vehicles will be hired have any grievance related
with fare.