Bengaluru: In an alarming indication that more number of people are switching from public transport to private commute, Karnataka’s vehicular population has now touched 2 crore. Also, recent data from the transport department reveal that the current vehicle population in Bengaluru stands at 80 lakh plus. But the shocking news is only 9,000 e-vehicles run in Bengaluru and only 900 plus e-vehicles have been registered during 2018-19. Around 1,750 new vehicles are registered in the city every day and the number of vehicles in Bengaluru has crossed 80.45 lakh, but the electric vehicle count is very less.
India is aiming to reduce its overall oil import bill and pollution levels across cities in the coming years. Electric vehicles will play a significant role in achieving this target as the government makes an effort to promote. But the new statistics have shocked transport officials. “As per the existing provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act, it is not possible to restrict new vehicles’ registration. However, in the interest of the environment, registration of e-vehicles should be promoted by the government first and then the public will be influenced to go e-vehicle,” A senior RTO official told DC.
The state government has announced that its aim is to replace 50% of petrol and diesel vehicles used by its staff in Bengaluru with eco-friendly electric vehicles (EV) by 2019. Also planning to amend the building bylaws to mandate 10-20% parking space for EV charging points, but the urban experts complain that the government should do some more experiments to bring more e-vehicles on roads. “The registration of new vehicles could only be brought down by improving public transport and walkability. About 40-45% of people in Bengaluru use public transport. But now because of the low-quality public transport, people are more into own vehicles. So government policy remains critical to making EVs attractive to drivers, spurring investment and helping car-makers achieve economies of scale,” says Purshotham Prabhakar, advocate and urban expert.
Karnataka was one of the first states in India to realize the potential of electric mobility.
But according to reports, only 950 e-vehicles have been registered during 2018-19 and Indiranagar RTO stands first with registration of 566 e-vehicles and Jnanabharathi stands last with 8 e-vehicles.
