With a view to cut down carbon emissions in the State, the Odisha Cabinet on Friday approved the Electric Vehicle Policy 2021.
For the first time, such a policy has been approved in the State of Odisha.
Sources said the decision is prompted by a Niti Aayog report on electric vehicles' future scenario in India.
Briefing media after the meet, Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Mohapatra said that the State aims to achieve a target of 20 PC registration of battery-operated electric vehicles out of the total vehicle registration by the year 2025.
A government media release stated that in order to reduce the rapid global temperature which is a concern for everyone for the last few decades, it is now necessary to reduce the emissions caused by different categories of vehicles plying on the road using the traditional fossil fuels since they contribute a lot for the Climate change. It is high time to reduce such emissions by reducing the use of such traditional fuel and accelerate the pace of adoption of electric vehicles.
The objective of the policy is to achieve the adoption of 20% Battery Electric Vehicles in all vehicle registrations by 2025, to promote the manufacture of electric vehicles and their components including batteries in the State, promote innovation and facilitate research and development in the areas relating to electric vehicles and battery.
Under the proposed policy guidelines, it has been decided to extend Financial Incentives such as incentives available for manufacturing industries, purchase incentives, scrapping incentives, interest subvention in loans, waiver of road tax and registration fees during the policy period.
It has also been decided to give incentives under the Start-up policy of MSME Department.
The decision was taken in the 33rd cabinet meeting which approved a total of 14 important proposals.