MP govt to bring e-vehicle policy soon

The Madhya Pradesh government will soon come up with e-vehicle policy in a bid to increase facilities for electric vehicles and bring down pollution levels, Urban Administration Minister Jaivardhan Singh said Tuesday.

The government would also emphasise on introducing electric buses and vehicles in public transport in future.

The minister said electric vehicles would be initially operated in big cities like Indore and Bhopal.

The upcoming policy would also regulate e-rickshaws and other vehicles besides developing required facilities for such vehicles, he said.

Meanwhile, the Bus Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) has said 90 per cent of 19 lakh public transport buses in the country are being run on tradition fuel - diesel.

"According to our estimation, 19 lakh buses, including 1.5 lakh buses in the government sector, are being run in the country, and 90 per cent of them operate on diesel engines, but the number of electric vehicles is very less," Prasanna Patwardhan, president, BOCI, told PTI in Indore.

He said about 500 electric transport buses are currently playing in ten cities including Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune under a pilot project.

"Though awareness is increased there is still lack of adequate infrastructure for these vehicles. A large number of charging stations need to be built across the country so that these buses can be charged, especially during night hours," Patwardhan said.

Listing the challenges in operating e-buses, the BOCI president further said, "It takes a long time to charge batteries of e-buses as per the existing technology. Secondly, even after fully charging the battery, an e-bus can be run up to 150 kms".

Patwardhan said that in such conditions bus operators are forced to use conventional fuel like diesel.

He, however, hoped that basic infrastructure for the e-buses would be improved by the year 2030.