Government mulling over giving target to state public transporters to deploy electric buses

NEW DELHI: With a view to promote the use of electric buses as public transport, the government is mulling over giving a target to state public transporters to deploy certain percentage of electric vehicles in their new orders.

A Niti Aayog official said that it will refrain from coming out with a policy on electric vehicles and Aayog is of the view that the market forces should be allowed to decide whether people want to buy electric car or diesel/petrol car.

“The main concern is pollution. We are considering of giving some targets to state public transporters to deploy certain percentage of electric vehicles in their new orders,” the official said, adding that behavioural change is needed and Niti Aayog is not in favour of policy at this moment.

Early this year, the government had dropped the idea of coming out with an electric vehicle policy following protests by many car manufacturers. They had said that they are not prepared for a sudden shift in transportation technology.

Thereafter, the Aayog asked many ministries concerned with transportation to frame guidelines to encourage the use of such vehicles.

These guidelines will be put together as an action plan for promoting the use of electric vehicles.