Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that government initiatives such as solar panel rooftops for 1 crore households announced in the interim Budget along with a clean cooking mission will be a boost for the battery manufacturing industry and bring down the cost of batteries for electric passenger vehicles.
Speaking at the inauguration of the three-day Bharat Mobility Summit, he said, “If I push the clean cooking movement [in the country with] 25 crore households so that you have rooftop solar [panels] and provision for battery storage, this will fuel clean cooking and demand for batteries. This will bring down the cost of car batteries.”
The PM said that his vision is that the solar panels for 1 crore households announced in the interim Budget will also provide charging for vehicles of the house owner. Taking cue from Prime Minister Modi’s assurance following the Ayodhya temple consecration that one crore households will be electrified via rooftop solar installations, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her speech on Thursday, announced that such systems would be installed in one crore households, which will enable them to get 300 units of free electricity every month. This will translate into savings of ₹15,000-18,000 annually for households and also allow the surplus to be sold to distribution companies, Ms. Sitharaman said.
He said that there is also an allocation of ₹1 lakh crore in the interim Budget to encourage research and innovation as well as tax exemptions for start-ups, which will create new opportunities for the mobility sector. He urged the industry to research to explore raw materials available in the country for battery manufacturing as well as in the areas of green hydrogen and ethanol.
The PM said that the tyre industry should also collaborate with farmers in order to reduce dependence on import of rubber.
He also announced that the government was working on a project to provide 1,000 resting facilities on National Highways for truck and taxi drivers. These will have facilities for food, clean drinking water, toilets, parking as well as taking rest.
“This will give a boost to both the ease of living and ease of travelling for truck and taxi drivers, thereby improving their health and also help in preventing accidents,” he said.
