The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is reviewing Maharashtra government’s electric vehicle policy, has expressed concerns over the lack of infrastructure to support an e-transport system in the State.
While the manufacturers of electric vehicles have proposed an investment of over ₹10,000 crore in the State, the UNEP has said the government’s policy needs better clarity. UNEP teams and experts from Tata Power recently reviewed the State’s plans to retrofit and convert 8,000 State-run buses into battery driven vehicles.
The UNEP, Maharashtra government and the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) are slated to sign an MoU on May 31.
Under the plan, the bus fleet of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation and the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking are to be considered for retrofitting and charging stations will be installed at bus depots.
The UNEP has promised to facilitate a partnership with the State government and provide support through its Green Fund for financing the Maharashtra Electric Vehicle Policy. However, the teams discovered during the review that infrastructure to set up charging stations was missing. “We need better clarity on who will install the charging stations for the e-bus launch. Better understating is needed to complete modalities between partners and stakeholders,” the UNEP said in its note to the government.
Maharashtra recently launched its e-vehicle policy, which has reportedly attracted an investment of ₹10,000 crore in the form of the three proposals from manufacturing units. The government aims to support manufacturing of around five lakh battery-powered vehicles while setting up 250 charging stations in six cities.
The policy envisages a complete switch of the State transport system to the electronic mode by 2030, an approximate investment of ₹25,000 crore and creation of 5 lakh jobs. “The UNEP is conducting a study on the possibilities of constructing charging stations in Mumbai. Once that is done, a tripartite agreement will be signed between Maharashtra government, EESL and the UNEP on the e-vehicle issue,” said a senior government official.
Following the clearance of the Maharashtra Electric Vehicle Policy in February this year, Nagpur had became the first city in India to get an electric vehicles (EV) charging station. The station came up on an Indian Oil gas/petrol facility.
The new policy makes special provisions to support construction of EV stations, including subsidised electricity rates for the manufacturers, and 25% capital subsidy for the first 250 stations. The Maharashtra government issued a special ordinance on Tuesday directing planning authorities to start giving permissions for construction of EV charging stations.
