The central government approved green licence plates for electric vehicles (EVs) in India, the minister for transport announced on Monday, a week after the Supreme Court suggested that use of electric vehicles should be encouraged. 

A notification will be issued in a week. 

"The government has approved distinctive green licence plates for EVs to encourage people to use electric vehicles. Such vehicles will be fitted with green licence plates bearing numbers in white fonts for private cars and yellow font for taxis," Gadkari said.

The purpose behind distinctive number plates is their easy identification for preferential treatment in parking, free entry in congested zones besides other proposed benefits like concessional toll, the road transport and highways minister told PTI.The measure is aimed at promoting e-vehicle's use and the government is considering exemption from permits for such vehicles.

"Exemption from permit will be a game changer as restricted permit regime is a major concern. E-rickshaw growth is attributable to the permit exemption and there is scope to extend the exemption to the e-buses, e-taxis, e-autos and e-bikes. E-auto and e-buses may have a big impact since getting a new permit is extremely difficult," the minister said.

Similarly, e-bikes also should see a considerable impact since it is a new area, he said. The minister said that the central government was also thinking of allowing youth between 16 and 18 to drive electric scooters that are gearless.

Under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, those in the age group of 16-18 years are granted licence for below 50 CC gearless scooters. Incidentally, there is no scooter in this category made in the country.

Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday the central government could make it mandatory for taxi aggregators to have a certain percentage of electric vehicles in their fleet.

"The government is also contemplating to ask taxi aggregators to have an incremental share of electric vehicles from 2020 onwards, which could be 1 per cent of the fleet every year," Gadkari said.

Likewise, all public transport operators may also be mandated to provide 1 per cent incremental fleet from 2020.

Source: Tribune