Total EV shift for Odisha govt vehicles in six months

BHUBANESWAR: The state government has set an ambitious roadmap to replace all vehicles engaged in its offices with EVs within six months while buses of all schools and educational institutes will be encouraged to make the shift within a year.

As per the draft Odisha Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy-2025 released on Tuesday, the Housing and Urban Development department will also convert all garbage and waste collection vehicles to EVs within six months.Similarly, all government ambulances and PCR vans have been proposed to transition to EVs within a year of the notification of the policy that seeks to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, cut vehicular emissions and boost electric mobility across the state.

The government is also set to extend all the incentives provided to EV buyers in the 2021 policy. 

However, the new policy also proposes a flat Rs 2 lakh per vehicle on electric cars used for transport. The incentives for other transport vehicles have also been revised. There will be a Rs 5 lakh incentive for vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonne and less than 7.5 tonne and Rs 7 lakh, Rs 16 lakh, Rs 18 lakh and Rs 20 lakh for less than 12 tonne, 18.5 tonne, 35 tonne and 55 tonne vehicles, respectively.The government has planned a major push for charging infrastructure and to equip all fuel stations along state and national highways with at least one fast charging station, subject to technical feasibility, while OSRTC bus stations will be equipped with charging points. Viability gap funding has been proposed to support installation of DC fast charging stations over the next five years.

With an aim to promote battery as a service (BaaS) and battery swapping, the policy proposed a 25 pc capital subsidy on the cost involved in procurement of equipment and machinery, capped at Rs 2 lakh per station.

At least three Centres of At least three Centres of Excellence (CoEs) have been proposed at Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Koraput and Berhampur to drive research in EVs, charging infrastructure and hydrogen-based technologies. A dedicated Chief Minister’s EV R&D grant with a Rs 15 crore corpus will be created to support research projects.

The Tourism and Forest and Environment departments will ensure that shuttle services in tourist sites and amusement parks shift to EVs within six months, while boating services will be made pedal-based or solar-electric hybrid within a year. The government-operated boats and ferries will also be converted