Jharkhand’s Plan on Electric Vehicles

Why in news?

Government of Jharkhand has introduced electric vehicles for official use.

What is Jharkhand’s plan on electric vehicles?

• According to the plan of state government 20 vehicles have been acquired for the first phase.
• Another 30 are expected to be added to the fleet in the coming weeks.
• It has also been reported that 12 charging stations have been set up in Ranchi so far, and several more are slated to come up.

What is the significance of the plan?

• In the current scenario of soaring fuel prices and the spectre of climate change looming large over the planet, it is a welcome development that a State government is taking the lead in switching to e-vehicles.
• Not only does this reduce the burden of fuel bills on the exchequer, it is also in sync with India’s strong pitch in favour of electric vehicles.
• If ministers and politicians are taken as a single category of consumers, their per capita and per kilometre consumption of fossil fuel is likely to be many times higher than that of most ordinary users, given their penchant for moving around accompanied by lengthy convoys of gas-guzzling escort vehicles.

What Jharkhand’s model imparts other states?

• Jharkhand’s plan would encourage the spread of a transportation infrastructure specific to e-vehicles.
• It would spur the early adoption of e-vehicles by first-time buyers, generating consumer momentum for India’s stated goal of ensuring that by 2030, all public transport and 30% of private vehicles are electric.
• This is not far-fetched as quite a few countries, such as Norway and France, already have a substantial percentage of their vehicles running on either electricity or alternate fuels.
• Electric vehicles are also an integral component of smart cities, as they are an automatic assumption in frameworks of smart transportation.
• Meanwhile, the government needs to speed up the formulation of rules for e-vehicles as a category, and come up with an India-specific road map for a transition that needs to be smooth if only because it is inevitable.

Source: The Hindu