Ahmedabad Municipal Corp Budget 2022-23: Green Energy, EVs in Focus

Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Lochan Sehra proposed a draft budget of Rs 8,111 crore before the standing committee on Wednesday, laying down plans to promote green energy in the city.

While avoiding new taxes and major announcements in the election year, the budget provided a thrust to solar power generation, rainwater harvesting and setting up of EV-charging bays by offering property tax incentives to housing societies, commercial establishments and institutions that participate in the initiatives in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

“A 10% rebate in property taxes is being offered for plotted housing schemes participating in the clean energy initiatives; there is a cash prize for housing societies in each ward that manage their power needs using solar rooftops, install EV charging bays, segregate their waste and have rain water harvesting systems in place,” says Sehra.

The draft budget has proposed 300 locations to be identified for electric vehicle charging stations along with a provision for a separate budget for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

“To create an EV charging infrastructure, AMC will provide land at a token rate of Rs 1 per square metre per month along with exemption from town planning and any other development costs. Also, the land used as charging station will be exempted from property tax for three years,” the commissioner announced during a virtual presentation of his draft budget Wednesday.

Once installed, these EV charging stations will be GIS mapped and the list will be uploaded on AMC website, app and updated regularly. For urban mobility, in addition to an existing operational fleet of 200 EV buses operational, another 100 EV AC buses have been proposed. Further, for last mile connectivity, in addition to existing 60 e-rickshaw on 10 routes, another 600 have been proposed on 100 routes.

“For group housing societies, a competition has been proposed where the society has installed rooftop solar along with rainwater harvesting and segregation of wet and dry waste. In each ward, first winner will be awarded Rs 3 lakh, second Rs 2 and third Rs 1 lakh,” Sehra said.

Further, stressing on ‘Smart City’ project, Sehra said, “Being the last year for Smart Cities Mission, AMC aims to complete ongoing projects as well as proposes new ones.”