West Bengal government proposes green lanes for e-vehicles:

KOLKATA: The Bengal government has proposed a special inter-city corridor, which can be used only by electric vehicles, with charging stations every 25km. This is an attempt to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles and encourage more and more people to use battery-driven cars, the state’s target being 10 lakh battery-powered vehicles by 2030.

The environment-friendly lanes will be along two popular routes, one from Kolkata to Asansol and the other from Kolkata to Digha. Along these routes, electric vehicles are planned to have priority movement channels, and rapid charging stations will be set up every 25km. There will even be green zones—which could be developed into parking areas or other facilities—where, only battery-powered vehicles are going to be allowed. “The policy will take forward our fledgling dream of zero-emission transportation. E-vehicles will give us immunity from the ever rising fuel prices, which are pushing up prices of each commodity. This is the future of vehicles. We all must work together to achieve this common goal at the earliest,” said state transport minister Firhad Hakim. The government expects the environment-friendly policy to pave the way for faster adoption of electric vehicles across categories to cut down on pollution as well as to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel. Currently, the price escalation of fossil fuel has almost crippled the transport sector.

The tariff for charging or input electricity tariff for public charging stations could be kept low to restrict operating costs and more people could go for such cars, an official said.

The policy identified Kolkata, Howrah, Asansol and Darjeeling as model e-mobility cities, urban area being the pilot city for all the initiatives, said a politician of Bengal’s power department, the project nodal body that drafted the policy. WBSEDCL is that the state-level nodal agency for charging infrastructure. At present, stated the electrical vehicle policy, 2021, the amount of such vehicles in Bengal was 37,400, of which 36,000 were e-rickshaws or totos. The state aimed at setting up one lakh public or semi-public charging stations while implementing the policy.

Bengal, the policy document stated, aimed to be among the highest three states in India in having electric mobility penetration by the top of FAME II implementation year 2022. The state also targets to be the simplest in electric mobility penetration by 2030. The policy also emphasised the utilization of other renewable energy sources, like hydrogen generation and refuelling stations, the primary few to be developed by the govt . Private developers also will be allowed to line up hydrogen stations in coordination with central guidelines and adhering to state safety standards. Developers will be eligible for 100% net SGST, accrued to the state, as reimbursement for purchase of machinery.