Less than 1 pc electric vehicles registered in Chandigarh, Lok Sabha told

Tribune News Service

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, March 17

The UT Administration has to go a long way to switch to electric vehicles (EV) to have lesser carbon footprint and make the city carbon neutral at the earliest.

According to the data, just over 5,500 electric vehicles have been registered in the city so far since 2018 with a majority of them being registered last year after unveiling of the Electric Vehicle Policy - 2022.

According to the Union Ministry of Road and Transport, 50,901 vehicles, including all types, were registered last year. Out of the total figure, around 2,718 were electric vehicles, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers, which is mere five per cent.

In reply to a question raised in the Lok Sabha on the promotion of electric vehicles, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Heavy Industries, stated that 5,549 electric vehicles - 1,599 two-wheelers, 3,304 three-wheelers and 646 four-wheelers - have been registered in Chandigarh till March 9, which was just 0.006724202 per cent in proportion to 8,25,228 vehicles running on fossil fuel registered in the city so far.

The UT Administration had rolled out the EV Policy on September 20 last year to encourage people with incentives to switch over to electric vehicles.

Under the policy, direct incentive is being provided to those users who purchase new electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles from the UT and get it registered with the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA), Chandigarh.

New buyers, who purchase a new electric car or hybrid vehicle between September 20, 2022, and September 19, 2027, are eligible for direct incentive subject to the number of electric vehicles to be incentivised as per the policy. However, the direct incentive will not be applicable to the government sector.

An official said the incentives were being released to the beneficiary within 15 working days of acceptance of all documents, subject to availability of funds.

Apart from a complete waiver on registration fee and road tax, the UT has offered incentives in the range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 2 lakh for the first 42,000 buyers of e-vehicles of all categories during the policy period. Besides, a special early bird incentive of Rs 2,000 is also given for purchase of e-bicycle and a minimum of Rs 3,500/kWh up to Rs 50,000 for other categories of vehicles purchased and registered in the first year of the policy period.

However, the UT Administration is yet to make charging stations for electric vehicles operational in the city even after unveiling the policy more than five months ago and fixing the charging tariff at Rs 8 per unit for slow and moderate charging, Rs 10 per unit for fast charging and Rs 11 per unit for battery swapping.

The UT had already installed 23 charging stations at nine locations across the city. These stations would have a total of 92 charging guns, through which an equal number of vehicles could be charged simultaneously. These charging stations would be made operational by the end of this month, said an official.

To cover the entire city, work on installation of 44 more charging stations under the ‘Chandigarh developer mode’ has also been allotted to two firms.

As many as 328 electric vehicles could be charged simultaneously across the city on these slow, moderate and fast chargers. Battery-swapping stations would also be set up along with charging stations at 26 locations in the first phase, he said.

5,549 registered till march 9

In reply to a question raised in the Lok Sabha on the promotion of electric vehicles, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Heavy Industries, stated that 5,549 electric vehicles — 1,599 two-wheelers, 3,304 three-wheelers and 646 four-wheelers - have been registered in Chandigarh till March 9, which was just 0.006724202 per cent in proportion to 8,25,228 vehicles running on fossil fuel registered in the city so far.

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