Facilitating e-mobility awareness for the people in Bengal, West Bengal government has introduced two online initiatives, namely EV Chetna and EV Bandhu at the 16th edition of Electric Vehicle Expo at the Biswa Bangla Milan Mela Ground.
EV Chetna is an EV-awareness web portal, which has been developed by the Government of West Bengal with the support of the Asian Development Bank.
It is a one-stop information library for potential buyers and investors.
Another integrated charging infrastructure app called EV Bandhu (friend) was also launched. This will allow users to find, book and pay for a charging station on a single platform.
This app will be available on the app stores in the coming months.
According to Additional Chief Secretary of the state Power department, Suresh Kumar, EV Bandhu will not only help the EV users to find the nearest charging station but will also show whether any charging point is available or occupied.
The state Transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty, state Power minister Aroop Biswas and state Industry Commerce minister Shashi Panja inaugurated the e-vehicle expo recently.
The three-day expo consisting of around 70 stalls and 100 participants from across the country displayed various electric vehicles including two-wheelers, and autos, amongst other vehicles. It was organised by the state Power department along with the West Bengal Trade Promotion Organization.
The state ministers voiced their concern over the rising environmental damage in the name of development across the world. They reiterated the need to follow sustainable development in order to ensure environmental conservation. “There is a global paradigm shift across the world due to environmental issues and increasing oil export costs. The demand for electric vehicles is bound to go up. There may be an increased manufacturing cost attached to e-vehicles but the operational cost is way less,” Panja said.
State Transport minister Chakraborty highlighted the transport department’s plan to bring in more e-vehicles including buses.
“Presently, there are 56,459 e-vehicles in the state, out of which there are 46 e-buses. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is focused on promoting sustainable development in the state and keeping that in mind our (transport department) goal is that we gradually replace the petrol or diesel vehicles with e-vehicles by 2030,” Chakraborty stated.
Chakraborty stressed upon the need to have a parallel inclusion of e-vehicles and the electric charging points in the state. Earlier, the state Power minister had announced that 1,000 charging points will be made in the state in the next two years. The state Transport minister stated that transport department depots will also allocate space to the Power department to build the electric charging points.
Apart from this, the state Power minister Biswas said that to promote the usage of e-vehicles amongst people, they will be providing the charging facility for Rs 6 per unit.