Delhi Govt Assigns INR 100 Cr To State Electric Vehicle Fund

This Tuesday, Delhi government allocated INR 100 Cr. to the state electric vehicle fund in its 2019-20 budget. The state government has proposed an outlay of INR 1,807 Cr. to aid the implementation of transport department’s various schemes, programmes and projects.

The Delhi government has also earmarked INR 50 Cr.  from the fund of environment compensation charge for the state electric vehicle fund. Minister also added that the government is working to strengthen the public transport system by inducting 4,000 new buses, including 1000 e-buses, under the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the cluster scheme run by the Delhi integrated multi modal system.

While presenting the budget, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, said, “This budget allocation to the electric vehicle fund is almost double the revised estimate of 2018-19.”

“Vehicles contribute to approximately 40% emission of PM 2.5 in Delhi,” added the deputy chief minister. In a bid to resolve Delhi’s pollution problem, the state government has formulated a draft electric vehicle policy in November 2018, which pushed for fast adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs).

The draft policy has aimed to make 25% of all vehicles to be EVs by 2023. Also, Delhi government committed to introduce at least 1,000 pure electric buses by 2019. In the budget presentation, Manish Sisodia had mentioned that the process to procure 1,000 low-floor AC electric buses has started and these buses will be soon operational in different phases in the upcoming financial year.

Other state governments have also put in place pro-electric vehicle state budgets and policies. Karnataka government proposed to set up electric charging stations across 10 city metro stations in the 2019 Karnataka budget. While Kerala government has aimed to deploy 1 Mn electric vehicles by 2022, supported by a INR 12 Cr emobility fund.

Meanwhile the Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh government has also allocated a INR 500 Cr grant for research and development of electric vehicles. Further, the Uttar Pradesh government also announced plans to operate nearly 580 electric buses in nine cities on a contractual basis.

In contrast to state governments, the union government’s interim budget 2019-20 did not share any new initiative or schemes to aid the growth of electric vehicles. However, the interim finance minister Piyush Goyal did state that India will lead the world in transport in EVs and renewable energy, making India a pollution free nation.