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“The private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative models for battery and energy as a service which will increase efficiency in EV ecosystem,” Sitharaman said. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on Tuesday announced the government’s plans of setting up a high-level committee of planners, economists and institutions to provide recommendations on urban sector policies, capacity building, planning, implementation and governance.
The finance minister also announced modern building bylaws will be introduced and five institutions that will be designated centres of excellence with an allocation of Rs 250 crore each for “India-specific urban knowledge.”
In a bid to push clean fuel consumption in public policy Sitharaman also said, “We will promote a shift to public transit usage through special zones with zero tolerance for non-public transit and encourage electric vehicles only operations.”
Sitharaman announced that to foster further efficiency in the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem, a battery swapping policy will also be deployed. “For setting up battery stations at scale a battery swapping policy will be brought out and interoperability standards will be formulated,” the finance minister said.
“The private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative models for battery and energy as a service which will increase efficiency in EV ecosystem,” she added in her budget speech.
In the Union Budget for the financial year 2021-22, the finance minister allocated Rs 18,000 crore to boost public transport in urban areas. The finance minister announced Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models to run more than 20,000 buses. The government also announced ‘MetroLite’ and ‘MetroNeo’ technologies to provide metro rail systems at much lesser cost with similar experience in Tier-2 cities and peripheral areas of Tier-1 cities.
Why so: The Government plans to give a boost to the electric vehicle ecosystem via public transport and its FAME scheme launched to accelerate EVs infrastructure in India.
So what: The Government’s push for battery swapping, a method in which a depleted battery is replaced with a fully charged one, can provide solutions to consumers’ apprehensions for electric vehicles, reduce vehicle costs and provide efficient charging arrangements.
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