The Delhi government has decided to extend its EV policy by another three months till March 31, according to Transport Department officials.
An official said a proposal regarding this will be sent to the Delhi Cabinet for approval. The policy, whichincentivises the purchase of battery-operated vehicles, was set to lapse on Sunday.
It aims at increasing the presence of electric vehicles on the city roads to 25% by 2024.
Earlier in October, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had told The Hindu that the policy will be given an extension of six months as his government is in the process ofreformulating the scheme to give additional incentives to people choosing battery-operated vehicles.
He had said in the second version of the policy, his government will be encouraging retrofitting – theconversion of dieselandpetrol vehiclesinto EVs.
“For the time being, we will be extending the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 1.0,” he had added, citing difficulties in its execution.
“Since the policy was first of its kind, there was no framework readily available to fall back on,” Mr. Gahlot had said.
The Minister said his department also faced problems in finalising space for charging stations to be used by private vehicles as finding land for it was difficult.
The shift to EVs has also been vigorously pushed under the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme. Under it, all aggregators will have to shift their entire fleet to electric vehicles by 2030.
Published - January 01, 2024 01:27 am IST
