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The Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Mr Nitin Gadkari, and Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Devendra Fadnavis, launched India’s first multimodal electric vehicle project at the Nagpur airport complex last week. This unique project brings together e-buses, e-cabs, e-rickshaws and e-autos on a single platform, the Ola App, which will enable commuters in Nagpur to book them. The fleet of 200 vehicles consists of 100 of Mahindra’s new e20 Plus vehicles, besides those from other manufacturers like Tata Motors, Kinetic and TVS.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gadkari said that it was his government’s vision to make India a 100 per cent e-vehicle nation. He said his Ministry was prepared to facilitate manufacturers and other companies to take the Nagpur model to other parts of the country. He said e-vehicles need to be promoted in order to cut down the huge crude oil bill, reduce pollution and create cost-effectiveness in transportation. To begin with, the emphasis would be on commercial vehicles and then on others.
Mr Gadkari informed that growing demand, coupled with R&D, would gradually help to bring down the operational costs, especially the battery cost. He added that once the cost of batteries comes down, e-vehicles will compete with diesel and petrol vehicles and finally phase them out
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