Future Belongs to Electric Vehicles: UP Transport Minister

By Ayush Verma/ Updated On Mon, Jul 29th, 2019

UP transport minister Swatantradev Singh has said electric vehicles are the need of the hour and the future belongs to them.

Future Electric Vehicles

Uttar Pradesh transport minister Swatantradev Singh has said electric vehicles are the need of the hour and the future belongs to them.

“Electric vehicles have many advantages. Less consumption of diesel and petrol will not only reduce pollution, but it will also save foreign currency which is used to import the fuel,” Singh said at a session on electric mobility at the second groundbreaking ceremony for industrial projects worth Rs 65,000 crore in the state.

He also added that the state government is providing many facilities to increase the use of electric vehicles. And, that it will soon bring a new policy regarding this and “we would welcome suggestions from investors.”

On this occasion, principal secretary Aradhana Shukla said because of population and rapid development UP is a big market for these vehicles. “Very Soon, we will be using electric buses on short routes,” she said in a statement issued here.

Recently, we reported that at present there are nearly 4 lakh (3,97,184) registered electric vehicles (EVs) or battery operated vehicles in India and that more than half (54 percent) of such vehicles are registered in Uttar Pradesh and in the capital city of Delhi.

The information was tabled by Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari while responding to a question raised in the Parliament. The m minister informed that UP has 1.39 lakh registered electric vehicles followed by nearly 75,746 in Delhi. Karnataka with 31,947 vehicles has the third-highest number of registered e-vehicles and Maharashtra with 19,239 comes next.

The ministers’ comments have followed up on the latest development from the GST Council meeting which has decided to lower the GST rates on all electric vehicles (EVs) to 5 percent from the existing 12 percent and has cut the current 18 percent GST on electric vehicle chargers or charging stations to 5 percent.