The ceremony took place in the august presence of Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, who handed over 15 EVs to the Department of Economic Affairs and also inaugurated an EV charging station
In a bid to transition to a cleaner mode of mobility, the Ministry of Finance (Govt. of India) recently signed an agreement with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to procure and deploy 15 EVs for the officers of the Department of Economic Affairs. While the signing ceremony took place in the presence of Shri Arun Jaitley, he also took the time to inaugurate an EV charging station in the North Block which consists of a total of 28 charging points. This will enable prompt and efficient charging of the EVs for their regular and uninterrupted services.
Speaking of the EV adoption, Shri Arun Jaitley said, 'Electric mobility is an attractive, sustainable and profitable solution to mitigate climate change and the risk to public health caused by vehicular emissions. EVs have the potential to support India’s growth by enhancing manufacturing, job creation, and technical capabilities. We are glad to be a part of India’s mission of rapid adoption of e-mobility.'
With this development, the Ministry of Finance becomes a crucial part of the Indian government's proposed plans and efforts for the electrification of 30 per cent of its fleet of vehicles by 2030. The ministry has not stopped here as it has also issued an office memorandum for all government offices in Delhi/NCR to switch to electric vehicles. To set the ball rolling, with these 15 EVs, the Department of Economic Affairs is expected to save over 36,000 litres of fuel every year and will also lead to a reduction of over 440 tonnes of CO2 emissions, annually.
EESL too is constantly working towards fulfilling the Indian government's e-mobility vision. As its first mission, EESL plans on replacing the Indian government's ICE-based fleet of 5 lakh vehicles with their electric counterparts. Recently, the Indian government also took a step in the right direction by announcing stringent guidelines for the country's EV charging infrastructure.
In November 2018, Tata Motors and Mahindra agreed upon supplying EESL with 10,000 units of their EVs in total. While Tata Motors will supply about 6,500 – 7,000 of those, the rest will be supplied by Mahindra. In the first batch, which was delivered to EESL by the end of December 2018, Tata supplied 350 of its Tigor EVs while the remaining 150 units were of the Mahindra e-Verito.
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