Go Green Mission accomplished, Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh flags off fleet of electric vehicles

07 Feb 2023

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Friday flagged off a fleet of electric vehicles. With this, officials said, Himachal Pradesh state transport department has become the first in the country to completely switch to e-vehicles.Adopting the ‘Go Green’ approach, the directorate of transport has replaced the official petrol and diesel vehicles with electrical vehicles, officials said, adding that the aim was to curtail the unnecessary expenditure on petroleum products and preserve the pristine environment of the hill state. All government departments will be equipped with electrical vehicles within a year, the CM said, adding that Electric Vehicle Policy 2022 has also been notified. “We will completely transform the existing diesel buses with e-buses in a phased manner and local bus depot of Shimla will soon have fleet of e-buses. An electric Bus depot will also be opened in Nadaun as well and the e-buses will soon run on all the local routes in Shimla,” the CM said.Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Friday flagged off a fleet of electric vehicles. With this, officials said, Himachal Pradesh state transport department has become the first in the country to completely switch to e-vehicles.Adopting the ‘Go Green’ approach, the directorate of transport has replaced the official petrol and diesel vehicles with electrical vehicles, officials said, adding that the aim was to curtail the unnecessary expenditure on petroleum products and preserve the pristine environment of the hill state. All government departments will be equipped with electrical vehicles within a year, the CM said, adding that Electric Vehicle Policy 2022 has also been notified. “We will completely transform the existing diesel buses with e-buses in a phased manner and local bus depot of Shimla will soon have fleet of e-buses. An electric Bus depot will also be opened in Nadaun as well and the e-buses will soon run on all the local routes in Shimla,” the CM said.·He added that 300 e-buses will be added to the fleet of HRTC for which an outlay of Rs 400 crore has been sanctioned. In two years, targeted 60% e-buses will be added to HRTC fleet. The CM said that the state is working in the direction to make Himachal as India’s first ‘Green Energy State’ by 2025. At present, about 21 lakh vehicles are registered in Himachal and according to government data, the country’s dependence on crude oil imports has increased from 82.9% to 83.7%, officials said. The state government is mulling to make Parwanoo-Nalagarh-Una-Hamirpur-Nadaun- Dehra highway as ‘Clean and Green’ corridor. Apart from this, the e-buses will soon run on the Shimla-Rampur corridor, said he. The rest of the routes in will be provided with e-buses in a phased manner in next three to four years, said officials. Electrical charging stations will be set up periodically for which around 110 places along the four lanes, National and State highways have been identified. Around 700 government buildings have been selected to set up the electric charging stations.