Mumbai: Amidst the air pollution crisis in the National Capital Region comes a welcome news the launch of, India’s first all-electric cab services, ‘Blu-Smart’ by Gensol Mobility, Blu-Smartcabs will induct 70 electric cabs that will be available in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram (Gurgaon), Aerocity, Sonepat and more areas in and around capital Delhi, as part of the first phase. The company plans to increase the fleet size to 500 cars by March this year, with the monetary transaction to be cashless.
“Green and pollution free existence is the mantra for human life, so smart and pollution free mobility can never be far. We at BLU-SMART, strongly believe that the next revolution is in the electric vehicle space and being a technology-driven organisation, we had to venture into offering this mobility solution. We are not a competition to current app-based cabs services, but a mere greener alternative to them. And we provide assurance as our drivers will never refuse a ride,” Gensol Mobility – Promoter, Anmol Singh Jaggi said in a statement.
The service, which will use Mahindra e-Verito cars, aims to provide an electric mobility option for commuters. The Gensol Mobility company has invested more than Rs 50 crore to run the e-cabs and set up charging infrastructure of 65 stations across the NCR, with each having up to 20 charging points. It has already set up 18 of the 65 charging stations. In other words, it means that there will be a charging point in a 5 km radius of the Electric Vehicle. Anybody with an electric vehicle can use the facility for charging.
Talking about the service, Mr Jaggi said customers would not have to pay surge pricing during peak hours.
The pricing will be competitive with other players that charge about Rs 14-16 per km for compact sedans. We are starting with web booking and in another seven days, our app would be in place, he said.
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One can book a cab through the web currently and soon there will be an App for the same. Blue smart charges about 10-15% less than other cab services.
The cabs will be low maintenance as they are zero-combustion model meaning there will be fewer moving parts and thereby less chances of parts failing. The e-vehicles will emit zero emission as e-Verito is an all-electric car that doesn’t require a tailpipe.
When asked by how much percentage the cabs will reduce air pollution, Umakant Panwar, Chairman, Gensol mobility told NDTV,
Introducing only a couple of electric cars will not help the environment since there are lakhs of combustion engine cars already in Delhi-NCR. However, we are planning to get about 3000 cars in the next two years, and as we increase the numbers, a change will be seen. As of now, there’s no change that can be stated in percentage. However, the big goal is to achieve is reducing carbon emissions.
The new service comes two months after the central government had released ‘Electric Vehicle Policy 2018’ draft in November 2018 which set a target for e-vehicles to be 25 per cent of the vehicles registered by 2023.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
