Telangana Prepares Draft Policy On Electric Vehicles

Following the central Government’s push for electric mobility, the Telangana government has drafted a policy that could make the journey a lot more smoother. The policy covers three major aspects - manufacturers, users and the support mechanism.

Commenting about the new policy, Jayesh Ranjan, the state’s IT and industry secretary, said, “The policy has been drafted. We have consulted the industry players to find out what are their expectations and most of those expectations have been included in the draft policy.”

“The policy has three components. One is for manufacturers. Those who want to manufacture electric vehicles in Telangana, what benefits, advantages and infrastructure support they will get,” he added.

The second component covers the support for users who want to make the shift to electric vehicles from regular vehicles, about which Ranjan said, “Suppose I am using a regular car. If I want to shift to an electric vehicle, what kind of support I will get.”

“The third component is about infrastructure. Because, to sustain electric vehicles, you require charging infrastructure. Who will build that charging infrastructure; if some private sector person is coming to build it up, what kind of support they will get. That will also be covered in the policy,” the official said.

The draft policy will also help in facilitating various modes of public transport to make a shift towards electric, Ranjan said.

“Finally, there will be something on public transport. What has been seen the world over is that moving a city into electric vehicle has to come from the leadership of the public transport providers,” he said.

“For example, buses, taxis, auto rickshaws, all these people, how do you make them switch over to electric vehicles, the policy answers all these things,” Ranjan said.

The draft policy would be shared with a number of other Government departments to take their views, before it goes for approval to the ministers and the chief minister, the official said.

“Now, the draft policy has been prepared. It will be shared with other government departments, like transport, traffic police, municipal administration, energy… their views will be taken. It will go through a process of approval,” he added.

Now, considering the fact that Telangana does not have any automotive manufacturing plant, we can only speculate that it can be the first major state in India to take a decisive step towards complete electric mobility. After Karnataka, Telangana will be the second state to consider instituting a policy for electric cars. This, along with Nagpur’s push towards having a fleet of 200 electric vehicles, including buses, taxis, e-rickshaws and autos, seems to be a step (finally) taken in the right direction. This policy might also give some breathing room to manufacturers who are already in the advanced stages of developments of EVs. However, it still remains to be seen when and how the policy will be implemented.