By Saumya Gupta
The new policy of Telangana for Electric vehicles aims at making Telangana a hub for Electric Vehicles and energy story systems. It aims to draw in private investments worth USD4 billion within the EV sector and make employment for 120,000 people by 2030 through shared mobility, charging infrastructure development, and manufacturing activities.
“Telangana has come out with an extremely comprehensive policy. We have ensured that the energy storage policy is clubbed with the EV policy because these two are tight-knit ideas which need to work cohesively. We have taken a pragmatic approach while designing this policy in consultation with industry leaders,” Rama Rao said after revealing the policy.
This policy is applicable for a period of 10 years from the date of notification of this policy. The policy shall be reviewed by the Steering Committee as notified in this policy. It also states that for the reuse and recycle of batteries, various disposal infrastructure models shall be set up, unlike the Delhi policy for Electric Vehicles.
Policy Incentives
Incentives have been made available for the production of electric vehicles, energy storage systems and related components in Telangana through capital subsidies, SGST reimbursements, power tariff subsidies, etc.
Under this policy, there will be a 100% exemption of road tax and registration fee for the first 2 lakh electric two-wheelers and first 20,000 electric three-wheelers registered and purchased within Telangana. For the 4-wheelers, first 5000 purchases will be given this exemption and In buses, 500 buses are provided with the same.
The policy also mentions that financing institutions will be supported if they provide a hire-purchase scheme at discounted interest rates.
Charging Infrastructure
The policy notified that the government would facilitate fixing of an initial batch of fast charging stations in Hyderabad and other towns during a phased manner, by state entities and personal players. TSREDCO (State Nodal Agency) is given the responsibility to gauge directly or under the licensee/franchise/PPP model the establishment of public charging stations.
Various public places like airports, railway and metro stations, parking lots, bus depots, markets, petrol stations, malls, and electric poles are going to be examined for an equivalent . A viable business model is going to be developed for personal players to line up ARAI-compliant EV charging/swapping infrastructure.
Specifications for charging infrastructure shall be defined by the Transport Department/ TSREDCO/ITE&C Department
Research and Development
The policy aims at making Telangana as a worldwide centre for cutting-edge research and innovation in battery technologies, electric vehicles and other emerging technologies. Providing employment to more than 1,000 people and investing around Rs. 200 crore for plant and machinery shall be categorized as the megaproject.
The State government will also provide preferential market access to the companies which set up their manufacturing plants in the state of Telangana.