E-vehicles push: Govt to focus on public transport for impact

The Centre will promote large-scale use of electric vehicles in the country by focussing on public transport system that includes taxis, buses and three-wheelers, since the move is likely to help in lowering the pollution level, a top official said today.
"We will be focusing mostly on the public transport. We were not leaving behind the passenger vehicles and private vehicles but the focus will be on public transport, shared taxis, three wheelers where the impact (in terms of lowering pollution) will be much more," Girish Shankar, Secretary in the Department of Heavy Industry, told PTI.
He said there are proposals from the state transport undertakings to run the city buses on clean technologies like electric and hybrid, which are under consideration.

Shankar spoke on the sidelines of a conference on 'Ensuring Hygiene & Safety For Our Industrial Workforce' here.
The government's top brass including senior ministers met on Thursday to chalk out a plan to promote electric vehicles in the country.
To promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government has been offering incentives on electric and hybrid vehicles of up to Rs 29,000 for bikes and Rs 1.38 lakh for cars under the FAME India scheme.

The scheme that was running in pilot phase till now will be formally launched on April 1.
Shankar said the modalities of the scheme including the quantum of subisidies and incentives to be provided are being worked out.

According to experts, several factors including higher cost of vehicles, power outages, lack of charging infrastructure and dearth of facilities for eco-friendly disposal of batteries to curb pollution are among the factors inhibiting consumers from buying electric vehicles in India.