In a bid to promote greener, non-polluting electric vehicles, the Transport Department of Himachal Pradesh has pledged to switch its current fleet of petrol and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles. This will make it the first state in the whole country to switch its entire fleet to EVs. As per the plan, all government departments will be equipped with electric vehicles within a year, in order to promote a sustainable and cost-efficient system.
Moreover, a total of 300 electric buses will be added to the fleet of Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC), for which, an outlay of Rs 400 crore has been sanctioned, an official statement quoting Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said. The government aims to switch the entire HRTC fleet to e-buses by 2025.
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As per officials, the switch to electric buses will drastically reduce the daily expenditure of running these buses in the state, which comes to around Rs 1.5 crore for one day. HRTC has been suffering losses due to the skyrocketing fuel prices.
Experts told IANS that the ecologically sensitive state with a huge tourism potential is expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of the decision to switch the entire fleet of state roadways to electric vehicles. Moreover, the government is also planning to introduce a new electric vehicle policy, which is claimed to be one of the top priorities as of now.
The new EV policy is targeted to achieve a 100% transition to electric vehicles by 2030. As per the policy draft, a provision for charging spots in commercial buildings like hotels and shopping malls has also been included. That said, the state’s electric vehicle policy will likely offer incentives like tax benefits to enhance the demand for battery-powered vehicles in the state.Source
