New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia said that all departments of Delhi Government will now use only electric vehicles. “It is the dream of our Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to make Delhi a pollution-free city,” said Shri Manish Sisodia. The decision that all Government Departments shift to electric vehicles is a historic decision by the Delhi Government. Delhi will be the capital of the world where all Government Departments switch to electric vehicles for road travel.
Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia raised the hope that using Delhi as an example, cities of the world ensure that using electric vehicles is an important agenda in the fight to curb pollution. “It is necessary to focus on the challenges related to a sustainable environment. Delhi Government has prioritised the issue of curbing environmental distress along with its other major agenda items,” said Shri Sisodia.
The Delhi Government has directed all its Departments, Autonomous bodies and Grantee Institutions to make a shift from their existing hired petrol/diesel/CNG vehicles to Electric Vehicles (EVs). Based on the Electric Vehicles Policy 2020, the Delhi Government has instructed all of its departments to switch to EVs through a lease/hiring model within a time frame of six months. Dry lease/wet lease model has been encouraged by the Government for the same.
Deputy Chief Minister pinned faith on the idea that the decision of switching to electric vehicles by all departments of the Delhi Government will be a key step in encouraging more sustainable practices in Delhi and thereby curbing environmental distresses such as pollution.
The Transport Department of Delhi will be the nodal department to monitor the progress of the transition from the existing diesel/petrol vehicle fleet to Electric Vehicles (EVs). It will also be necessary for all departments to produce monthly action reports on the transition to EVs by the 5th of every month to the nodal department. “The people of Delhi have time and again made efforts towards making our environment, our city green and clean. Switching to electric vehicles will be another effort that all of us together, as citizens of Delhi, will take to ensure that we continue this fight towards sustainability” said Deputy Chief Minister.
The fight against pollution in Delhi and to make Delhi a cleaner and greener city is the mission of the Delhi Government. Switch Delhi is an eight-week mass awareness campaign by the Delhi Government to sensitize each and every Delhiite about the benefits of switching to EVs to the environment as well as to make them aware of the incentives and infrastructure being developed under Delhi’s EV policy. The campaign aims at informing, encouraging, and motivating each and every person in Delhi to switch from polluting vehicles to zero-emission electric vehicles. While the first two weeks of the campaign have focused on promoting two and three-wheeler owners to switch to EVs, the third-week targets four-wheeler vehicle owners to adopt EVs.
