Centre will come out with policies to get public transport in most Indian cities: Advisor to PM

Advisor to Prime Minister Tarun Kapoor on Tuesday said the central government will come out with policies to introduce public transport in most Indian cities, and the electric vehicle industry can expect “very large” support in this segment. In an analysis, it was realised that public transport is missing in most of the Indian cities. “So, while the government now will come out with policies to get public transport to most of the Indian cities, we will also ensure that this happens with electricity and not with diesel. Therefore, on public transport also you can look forward to a very large support from the government coming in,” Kapoor said while speaking at a function on electric mobility in New Delhi. “So that not only we will see the transition from diesel buses, but we will also see more and more of public transport, which is missing, and electric coming in,” he said. He also called upon the EV industry to focus on innovation to cut the prices of vehicles and reduce battery size. Penetration of EVs is happening at a faster pace in some Scandinavian and European countries, and now India is the country which really needs to move in this direction mainly because of its energy security concerns, he said. India imports over 85 per cent of its crude requirement and also imports over 50 per cent of natural gas. Considering the fact that a large number of the most polluted cities of the world are located in India, the country has no choice but to adopt more and more EVS, he noted. “We really want to focus on driving this sector so that not only do we have electric cars, buses and two-wheelers on the road, but we also come up as a manufacturing hub for the world,” he said, adding there has been good traction on EV buses and public transport, but there is a need to increase the pace. He also pointed out that large players are there in the auto and auto components sector in India, so the only thing is the transition, which should be easy. “We are very clear that (in the) two-wheelers…transition may be close to 100 per cent in the next 5-7 years and there is no reason why we can’t do it,” Kapoor said, adding shifting in the two-wheelers segment would help in reducing petrol consumption. (With inputs from PTI) Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.