The CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, recently said that the inter-ministerial panel had approved 5,645 electric buses for operations in 65 cities in the country.

Electric buses have also been sanctioned to eight state transport undertakings for inter-city operations.

In a tweet, Amitabh Kant said that the move provides leverage to the automobile industry to clean up cities and promote the Make in India initiative by the government.

Just recently, the Finance Minister chaired the 36^th GST council meeting where Goods and Services Tax (GST) on electric vehicles was slashed from 12% to 5%. This move will come into effect from August 1, 2019.

NITI Aayog has taken bold steps in facilitating the clean mobility transition by charting a comprehensive roadmap for electric vehicle adoption in the coming decade. Two-wheelers are the low hanging fruit as India is the largest two-wheeler market in the world today. Therefore, the think tank has announced that every two-wheeler sold after 2025 must be electric or battery-operated. It has also charted a blueprint for the complete transition to EVs by 2030.

Mandates have been given to cab aggregators as well to convert a part of their fleet to electric by 2026. In the Union Budget for FY 2019-20, the finance minister has provided strong support to the nascent electric vehicle industry with the announcement of tax incentives to speed up the transition of the automobile industry from fossil fuel dependent to electric.

Image Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electric_Buses_in_Bangalore_by_BmTc_(13938784383).jpg#file

Ramya Ranganath is an Associate Editor and Writer for Mercom Communications India. Before joining Mercom, Ramya worked as a Senior Editor at a digital media supply chain solutions company. Throughout her career, she has developed end-to-end content for various companies in a wide range of domains, including renewables. Ramya holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology and is passionate about environmental issues and permaculture.