Focus on 3Ds must: KTR 

Sustainable mobility and energy crucial for urbanisation of cities

Hyderabad: Unveiling the Electric Vehicles Policy here on Friday, Industries and IT Minister K T Rama Rao stressed the need to focus on decarbonisation, digitisation and decentralisation of Indian cities as they are the epicentre of economic activity.

Stating that Hyderabad contributes 50 per cent to the GSDP, he said, it is important to ensure that the economic vitality of our cities remains intact in order to become a $5 trillion economy.

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Telangana is one of the most urbanised States in India with 43-44 per cent of the population living in urban regions, he said and stressed on constant urbanisation, sustainable mobility and energy.

“In 5-7 years, majority of people in Telangana would be living in urban areas. While one cannot completely contain the urbanisation, we can hope for the sub-urbanisation in a structured and planned way, create more counter magnets, integrated townships and ensure that people move further away and create more economic clusters,” he said.

‘Infrastructure major challenge in EV sector’

One of the biggest challenges facing the electric vehicle (EV) industry is the availability of right kind of infrastructure – either in terms of charging stations, battery swapping stations or even the availability of components. And these challenges, according to experts, can be overcome if the different stakeholders – both government and industry – work together and come up with a viable solution.

At a panel discussion held post the unveiling of Telangana Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy, experts from the EV industry spoke about the need for a good infrastructure in order to grow the EV sector in the State and provided different solutions to improve this infrastructure. “Battery swapping, mandating electric three-wheelers for public transport and financing options for the e-rickshaw owners are some of the many issues that the State can look at to improve EV adoption. We would be happy to partner with the State to overcome the infrastructure challenges in any way possible,” said Sulajja Firodia Motwani, founder and CEO, Kinetic Green Energy.

Agreeing to the issues faced in the EV sector in the State, Telangana Industries Department principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan said that the policy unveiled by the State on Friday is well-aligned with the needs of the industry.

Meanwhile, Uber India president Pradeep Parameswaran said that the company is committed to becoming a 100 per cent EV firm by 2040 and is looking to launch its Uber Green initiative – which is live in many markets in the Europe — in India soon. “In order for ride-hailing companies like ours to survive it is important that infrastructure is available and we are in support of swapping technology and are hoping that the State will look at improving the parking issue at metro stations,” he added.

PuREnergy CEO Rohit Vadera spoke about the growing interest and traction in the EV segment in the post-Covid world and anticipates substantial demand coming in for the sector in the next two to three years. Giving details on what is lacking in the EV sector, Maruti Suzuki India executive V-P (Corporate and Government Affairs), Rahul Bharti said that the industry must focus on manufacturing all three components – battery, motor and power electronics – locally. “This will benefit all EV manufacturers and decrease the hurdles,” he said.

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