KOLKATA: State Transport minister Firhad Hakim on Thursday said the Bengal government was mulling to sign an MoU with the Australian Consulate General so that sufficient amount of Lithium can be provided to battery manufacturing campany to facilitate the production of electric vehicles.
"We came to know that the electric bus manufacturers are supplying less number vehicles due to lack of Lithium. The Lithium mines are in China and Australia. We will approach the Australian Consulate General to sign MoU," said Hakim, on the sidelines of a felicitation programme organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry at a city hotel on Thursday. He reiterated that Lithium is used in batteries of electric buses. But due to the lack of lithium, only 2000 buses are being produced in the country throughout the year. However, the there is a demand of 50, 000 buses in a year across the country.
The state transport department is working on a plan to run all government and private buses on CNG. It is exepcetd that these CNG buses will run in Kolkata in the next six months.
Hakim, who is also Kolkata Mayor, pointed out that state Transport department is working under the objective of zeroing out petrol and diesel by the year 2030.