Finance Ministry Goes All-Electric: 15 EVs Replace Vehicle Fleet at North Block
After 15 EVs, EESL plans to replace 5 lakh conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars used by Government with electric variants. It is also working to establish charging infrastructure across all states where EVs are being deployed.
Indian government along with the Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry has just signed an agreement with Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL) to deploy 15 electric vehicles for their officials. To promote its use and easy charging, a total of 28 charging points out of which 24 are slow and 4 are fast chargers, will be installed in the North Block complex.
EESL will be handling these 15 electric cars which, according to sources, are Mahindra e-Veritos. The other option for electric cars also include Tata Tigor Electric. Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley with Power Minister Mr R K Singh flagged off these 15 New electric cars from the North Block yesterday.
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With these 15 EVs, Department of Economic Affairs will most likely save over 36,000 liters of fuel every year. Apart from that, a reduction of over 440 tonnes of CO2 is also expected annually. EESL has plans to replace the government’s 5,00,000 conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars with electric variants. EESL is also involved in establishing charging infrastructure across all states where EVs are being deployed.
The agreement signing ceremony was held in the presence of Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, R.K. Singh, Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ajay Narayan Jha, Finance Secretary & Secretary (Expenditure), Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; and Ajay Bhalla, Secretary, Ministry of Power. With this development, the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance marks its participation in India’s e-mobility goal of 30 percent fleet electrification by 2030.
Additionally, The Department of Expenditure has issued an office memorandum for all the government offices in Delhi NCR to shift to EVs to help in safeguarding the environment. EESL says that it has received an encouraging response from Central Government departments and other states across the country. So far, Agreements and MoUs have been signed with Central and State Government departments in Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Administration and Telangana. According to EESL, it is in advanced negotiations with other State Governments across India.
