A day after State Industry Department announced concessions up to Rs 1.50 lakh on e-vehicles; Industry Minister Subash Deshmukh Thursday said e-vehicles will henceforth become mandatory for all government, civic, and Zilla Parishad offices.
“Last month, we came up with a new e-vehicle policy. Yesterday, we announced a rebate for e-vehicle buyers as part of our e-vehicle policy,” Desai told The Indian Express Thursday.
The Minister said in the next four years, 10 percent of all public transport buses will be e-vehicles. “Similarly, 25 percent state transport buses will be e-vehicles. As of now, the percentage of e vehicles is much lesser than imagined”.
But the big move, Deshmukh said, will be the mandatory use of e-vehicles in all government offices. “Be it state government department, civic bodies, Zilla Parishads or gram panchayat, henceforth all purchases will be of e-vehicles. We will do away with petrol and diesel vehicles. We have already issued directives to effect,” the Minister said while emphasizing on promoting the non-polluting mode of transport.
Stating that the government was attracting e-vehicle manufactures and the battery-makers by offering incentives, Desai said,” In the next four years, there will be 2,500 charging stations across the state which will further boost the e-vehicles industry.”