The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is reviewing
Maharashtra government’s electric vehicle policy, has expressed concerns
over the lack of infrastructure to support an e-transport system in the
State.

While the manufacturers of electric vehicles have proposed
an investment of over Rs. 10,000 crore in the State, the UNEP has said
the government’s policy needs better clarity. UNEP teams and experts
from Tata Power recently reviewed the State’s plans to retrofit and
convert 8,000 State-run buses into battery driven vehicles.

The UNEP, Maharashtra government and the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) are slated to sign an MoU on May 31.

Under
the plan, the bus fleet of the Maharashtra State Road Transport
Corporation and the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport
undertaking are to be considered for retrofitting and charging stations
will be installed at bus depots.

The UNEP has promised to
facilitate a partnership with the State government and provide support
through its Green Fund for financing the Maharashtra Electric Vehicle
Policy. However, the teams discovered during the review that
infrastructure to set up charging stations was missing. “We need better
clarity on who will install the charging stations for the e-bus launch.
Better understating is needed to complete modalities between partners
and stakeholders,” the UNEP said in its note to the government.

Maharashtra
recently launched its e-vehcile policy, which has reportedly attracted
an investment of Rs. 10,000 crore in the form of the three proposals
from manufacturing units. The government aims to support manufacturing
of around five lakh battery-powered vehicles while setting up 250
charging stations in six cities.

The policy envisages a complete switch of the State transport system to the electronic mode by 2030.