CHENNAI: Industries Minister MC Sampath on Thursday informed the Assembly that the Tamil Nadu government will unveil an e-vehicle policy soon. Ford, Hyundai and Nissan companies have come forward to manufacture e-vehicles. Only after this, the government would take further steps, he added.
The minister said this while responding to the remarks of DMK MLA TRB Raja. He said for industrial growth, modern transport facilities were important. So, the Tamil Nadu government should evolve an e-vehicle policy because it would yield more employment opportunities to the State. The government should take efforts to make Chennai as an e-vehicle hub. For this purpose, e-vehicle charging stations should be set up.
In this connection, Transport Minister MR Vijayabhaskar explained that at the global level, research about electric vehicles were going on and updation of technology was taking place at a rapid pace. Previously, the batteries used for e-vehicles used to take much time for charging. Now, quick charging batteries have been evolved. Because of these developments, the price of each electric bus which stood at `2 crore came down to `1.5 crore.
The Tamil Nadu government had sought 200 battery-operated electric buses. But the Centre had conveyed that due to updations in technology, it would take some more time to provide these buses. Transport department officials have been conducting regular meetings on procuring the e-vehicles.
The Minister said the first battery operated electric bus was operated in Sikkim on an experimental basis and now Andhra Pradesh government had signed an agreement for purchasing 50 such buses.
Intervening, Tamil Development Minister K Pandiarajan said Coimbatore was shaping up as the first e-vehicle hub. The demand for an e-vehicle policy emanated only because of the initiatives taken by the AIADMK government.