Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Thursday asked the Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing companies to make "Himachal-specific prototype electric buses in a time bound manner," informed a press release.
In a meeting held here with the representatives of Electric Vehicles Manufacturing Companies, the CM asked the firms to keep in mind the various parameters like Himachal's hilly terrain, loading capacity and luggage space. "To achieve the goal of making Himachal Pradesh a 'Green Energy State' by the year 2025 and to reduce the carbon emission, the state government intends to replace the fleet of diesel buses of HRTC with electric buses in a phased manner and intends to ply e-buses on inter-district routes," Sukhu said. The Chief Minister said a committee would be constituted to decide all the modalities and specifications for the proto-type e-buses under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary. "The State Government is committed to providing the best and most comfortable transportation services to the people of the State. It is making earnest efforts to preserve and conserve the environment of the State and switching over to e-vehicles would be a milestone in this direction," he said. CM Sukhu further added saying, "The State Government was planning to make Parwanoo-Nalagarh-Una-Hamirpur-Nadaun-Dehra highway as a 'Clean and Green' corridor and necessary infrastructure would be created in this regard. The State Transport Department is the first such department in the country to switch over to electric vehicles and it is the mandate of the State Government that other departments would also be provided e-vehicles in a phased manner". Chief Secretary, Prabodh Saxena, OSD to Chief Minister, Gopal Sharma, Managing Director HRTC, Sandeep Kumar, Director Transport, Anupam Kashyap and senior officers of the Transport Department and HRTC were present in the meeting amongst others, the release added. (ANI)
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