Go electric, govt tells private, omnibus owners

CHENNAI: Gearing up to revise the ‘Tamil Nadu Electric Vehicle Policy’ to update with recommendations from the State Planning Commission, the State Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce Department has implored private and omnibus operators to shift to e-buses. The existing EV Policy was released in 2019.

The request was made during a roundtable stakeholders’ meeting on framing recommendations to electrify public transportation held a few days ago, which was organised by Guidance Tamil Nadu, the nodal agency for investment promotion and single-window facilitation.

Apart from private and omnibus operators, the meeting was attended by representatives from associations of travel agencies that operate staff buses for private firms.

“The government requested the associations to shift to e-buses and promised to make necessary infrastructure available. They also discussed the requirements of the industry for making the shift,” one of the representatives, who took part in the meeting said.

During the meeting, A Anbalagan, president, All Omni Bus Owners Association, handed over a representation to Guidance Tamil Nadu, requesting fast charging facilities on all national and State highways. He also urged the government to provide capital incentives to the maximum of 25 per cent and ensure long-term service support from battery manufacturers.

“The central government has announced carbon credit rule to vehicle operators in August 2022. For example, each bus would potentially get 22 carbon credits per year. So, we have to know the monetary value equivalent to 22 carbon credits. The same should be specified in the EV Policy,” the representation said.

With the waiver on bus permit fees and road taxes for electric vehicles ending on December 30, the association also requested the government to extend the waiver by five more years. Requests have also been made to include hydrogen vehicles in the EV Policy, as operation costs are lower.

The AIADMK government announced the EV Policy in 2019, which the present government is revising after taking into consideration various developments in production and use of EVs. The ‘Tamil Nadu Electric Vehicle Policy 2019’ set out a vision to attract Rs 50,000 crore in investments and create 1.5 lakh jobs.

The policy has projected 9.8 crore vehicles in Tamil Nadu by 2030, and envisaged to have 30 per cent of those vehicles to be EVs.