Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government will soon come up with electric vehicle (EV) policy in a bid to increase facilities for EVs and bring down pollution levels, Urban Administration Minister Jaivardhan Singh said on 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. Prasanna Patwardhan, president, BOCI, told PTI in Indore said,
According to our estimation, 19 lakh buses, including1.5 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.
He said about 500 electric transport buses are currently being plied in ten cities including Mumbai, Kolkata, and Pune under a pilot project. Mr. Patwardhan said,
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.
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 upto 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 thee-buses would be improved by the year 2030.
Also Read: Electric Vehicles May Not Need To Pay Registration Fees Soon, Thanks To The New Government Proposal
DTV – 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.
