EESL to roll out 1,000 electric cars to Maharashtra government

NEW DELHI: State-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) plans to roll out 1,000 electric cars to Maharashtra government over the next six monthsas the latter plans to create Rs. 25,000 crore market for electric vehicles and supporting infrastructure in the state.EESL signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the general administration department of the Maharashtra government on Thursday to lease electric vehicles and install charging infrastructure in the state as part of the Maharashtra government’s Electric Vehicle and Related Infrastructure Policy, 2018.“This is part of the 1,000 cars order we have received from the Maharashtra government, and we are supplying these cars from our first electric cars tender,” Saurabh Kumar, managing director, EESL, told ET.Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the first lot of 20 electric cars in Mumbai on Thursday.EESL will also set up about 250 charging points across various locations to be identified by the state, Kumar said.The MoU between EESL and Maharashtra will support the state government’s plans to generate investment worth Rs 25,000 crore in EVs and component manufacturing, assembly enterprises and charging equipment manufacturing. The policy also entails increasing the number of registered EVs in the state to five lakh and creation of one lakh jobs, EESL said in a statement.EESL, the government’s implementing agency for India’s electric mobility program, floated a global tender last year, for bulk procurement of 10,000 electric cars, which would be used to replace the fleet of petrol and diesel cars in central and state government offices. The electric cars to Maharashtra government will be supplied as part of the first tender.The company floated a similar tender in April this year for procurement of 10,000 cars. The second tender has been temporarily put on hold as the industry awaits a clarification from the Department of Heavy Industries on specifications of charging stations.Kumar said that the company has aggregated a total demand of around 19,000 electric cars and states like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have contributed to the increasing demand.

from The Economic Times https://ift.tt/2L6gcMb