HYDERABAD: The Telangana government on Friday reiterated its readiness and commitment to set up a Giga-Scale Li-ion battery manufacturing plant in the State. It has informed the Centre that the youngest State is the most suitable place for locating the unit.In a video conference with NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Friday, Chief secretary SK Joshi said the State is ideally suited for setting up 5 GWh capacity battery manufacturing plant as envisioned by the Centre.
Telangana has a land bank of 200 acres close to the airport and Outer Ring Road, with ready to supply power and water at discount, with access to a skilled workforce, the Chief secretary said. The Central government has recently set up National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Smart Storage comprising an Inter-ministerial Steering Committee of Secretaries headed by CEO of NITI Aayog. Telangana State qualifies for all the criteria for selection, including single window mechanism under TS-iPASS, encumbrance free land, trunk infrastructure, access to adequate utilities at rational rates, subsidies and incentives to ancillary units.
The State has one of the most proactive and business-friendly electronics manufacturing policy in the country, Joshi said. Amitabh Kant congratulated Joshi for expressing interest to accommodate the Giga-Scale Li-ion battery manufacturing plant. Kant said that around five states in the country would be chosen for this initiative.
‘States should create demand as per Central govt’s mandate’
He also said that States should create demand as per the Central government’s mandate for converting all 3-wheelers to electric by 2023 and converting all 2-wheelers to electric by 2025. These incentives should include soft loans to State Discoms, rooftop installations.
What is the policy?
National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage policy is intended to drive clean, connected, shared, sustainable and holistic mobility initiatives. Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) valid for 5 years to support setting up of a few large-scale, export-competitive integrated batteries and cell-manufacturing Giga plants. MAKE-IN INDIA: Currently, the country is importing lithium-ion batteries, which are the key components for electric vehicles (EVs). The indigenous production of them will help in reduction of cost of the EVs.