All government departments in Maharashtra will opt for only electric vehicles (EVs) if they need to procure new vehicles from April 2022, state environment minister Aditya Thackeray said on Wednesday.
The existing fleet of vehicles with various state government departments can not be replaced or scrapped immediately as it would cost a lot of money to the exchequer, he said.
"But as per our new policy, from April 2022 if any state government department wants to buy or rent a new vehicle, it will opt for electric vehicles," he told reporters here.
He had a meeting with various stakeholders here with the aim of making Pune city "carbon neutral" by 2030, he said.
The minister, yesterday, visited the premises of Pune-based electric vehicle maker Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions Ltd to assess the potential and for further growth of the electric vehicle space, according to a statement.
The Maharashtra government had in early July announced its new electric vehicle (EV) policy with an aim to have a 10 per cent share of the electric vehicles in total registrations by 2025.
The state government, under the updated version of the EV policy announced in 2018, also wants to achieve a 25 per cent EV share in public transport in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nashik.
The policy includes converting 15 per cent of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation fleet into EVs by 2025, besides intending to make the state the top producer of battery-driven vehicles in the country in terms of annual production capability.
