In order to accelerate its electric vehicles (EV) roadmap, the Yogi Adityanath government will soon float tenders for the supply of 600 electric buses for public transport across major cities in Uttar Pradesh.
The buses are proposed to be deployed in Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Agra, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Mathura, Gorakhpur and Shahjahanpur.
Apart from sourcing electric buses from private companies, the UP urban transport directorate would also facilitate setting up of charging stations and maintenance infrastructure to service the vehicles under the same tendering process.
The government has estimated 200,000 charging stations would be set up across UP in the next few years to cater the growing fleet of public and private EVs.
Chairing a review meeting here Friday, UP urban development minister Ashutosh Tandon directed officials to speedily complete the tendering for 600 electric buses even as he also instructed for replacing existing fleet of buses with new CNG buses.
On August 6, the Adityanath cabinet had cleared the much awaited state EV policy, which is projected to attract private investment to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore over the next 5 years and create nearly 50,000 job opportunities.
“We have envisaged by 2024, nearly 70 per cent of public transport buses in UP would be electric, with about 10,000 new buses being introduced for the purpose,” UP cabinet minister and state government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh had told the media after the crucial cabinet meeting.
So far, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra had rolled out their EV policies. However, being the largest consumer state, UP is counting on the high growth potential of the sector vis-a-vis peer states.
The new policy promises sops to encourage private investment in the EV space, which is among the topmost priorities of the Centre to promote green transport, cut emissions and pare burgeoning oil import bill.
“The policy focuses on three main planks -- promoting manufacture of EVs in the state, setting up charging stations and generating demand for such vehicles,” Singh said, adding the sector was key to cutting emissions and reducing oil imports.
Under the policy, the state has offered various incentives, including land cost subsidy of 25 per cent, up to Rs 50 lakh subsidy on capital investment (capex) for technology transfers and Rs 25 lakh capex subsidy on charging stations to mega anchor units and ultra mega battery units.
The policy further offers 100 per cent rebate on registration of e-vehicles, apart from 25 per cent rebate on road tax.
Addressing an event in Lucknow on July 28, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran had observed the Group saw immense potential in UP for renewable energy and EV segments even as he noted UP was the most important state and its success was imperative for achieving the country’s target of becoming $5 trillion economy by 2024.
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