If the Thane Municipal Corporation has taken the initiative to make Thane green by setting up 100 e-charging stations, it is Thanekars like Avinash Nimonkar who took the first step towards e-vehicles. In October he became the first person in Maharashtra to have an e-car and also set up his own e-charging station to fuel his vehicle. Thane environmentalists say that such initiatives are the need of the hour if we want to save the environment.
In October 2018, Nimonkar brought his first electric car Mahindra's E Verito. "While the fuel cost for any car which runs on petrol is Rs 8 to Rs 10 per km, it is Re 1 for an e-car. Once charged it serves up to 140km," he says. "I save fuel, my car does not leave behind carbon monoxide. I think every person's next vehicle should be an e-vehicle," he adds.
Being in the advertising business, Nimonkar switched to manufacturing e-rickshaws three years back. He has a manufacturing unit in Nagpur and his rickshaws are driven in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Northern India. Very soon his e-rickshaws will be available in Thane as well.
While he is not at all repentant about his e-car, he says mobility is a problem and also has a solution for it. "People would like to drive their cars across the state but there are no charging stations. I have set up a charging station at my home and office. And in the next 12 months we will set up 2,000 stations across Maharashtra where people can charge their e-vehicles - cars, bikes, truck, tempo for free," he said. "There will be an e-charging station every 50km and we are in talk with a bank where ATMs can also be used for e-charging," he adds.
In fact, he also manufactures kits which can be used to convert bikes into e-bikes and some cars into e-cars. In three years the e-charging industry will be Rs 3,000 crore, he said.
Environment activist Rohit Joshi says that saving the environment is not only a corporate social responsibility but even that of the individual.