Time for India to move towards electric vehicles: CII

New Delhi [India], Sept 31 (ANI): The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday said it is time for India to move towards the consumption of electric vehicles (EV), as they are powered by a cleaner and more transportable source of fuel.

"Electric vehicle mobility is better, as it is cleaner and more transportable and also easier to handle. During a day and age when electricity has taken over our homes, appliances and so on, it was certain that transport will also be affected. The government will seek clarity from the industries on this, and eventually begin the shift," Co-Chairman of CII National Committee on Industrial Relations Pradeep Bhargava told ANI.

Supporting this stance, former President of CII and CMD, Tractors India Ltd, Sumit Mazumdar opined that although the process will take some time to materialize, a start needs to be made somewhere.

"The world is going towards battery-operated cars, and India will also have to take this up. It will take time to materialize, but we should start somewhere," he said.

Earlier in the month, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari categorically stated that in order to curb pollution in the country, the automobile manufacturers and members of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) have to end the production and consumption of vehicles that run on diesel, adding that an alternate path has to be taken up at the earliest.

"The path is clear; diesel vehicles have to be banned. It is important for the SIAM and automobile manufacturers to change their ideology with changing times. We have to look at reducing two things in our country- imports and pollution-both of which are detrimental," said Gadkari, while addressing the SIAM Annual Convention 2017 here.

Envisioning electric vehicles to be the future of the automobile industry, Gadkari emphasised that constructive planning needs to be done for the next 25 years, adding that it is necessary to instigate increasing usage of bio-fuel and CNG.

"The future is meant for electric cars and bio-fuel usage. We will have to plan out things in a way that even tractors will run on CNG. The Cabinet will soon publish a detailed notification on electric cars," he said. (ANI)