HYDERABAD, OCT.

30 : The government on Friday launched the Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy, offering several incentives for manufactures and customers who patronise electric vehicles.Industries minister K.T.

Rama Rao and transport minister Puvvada Ajay unveiled the policy at Telangana Electric Vehicle Summit here with an aim to attract four billion dollars in investments and create 1.2 lakh jobs in the sector by 2030. The policy offers exemption from road tax and registration fee to the first set of two lakh EV two-wheelers, 20,000 three wheelers, 5,000 commercial four-wheeler passenger vehicles, 5,000 four-wheeler private vehicles, and 500 electric buses, purchased and registered in the state.

It also extended exemption to 10,000 three-wheelers (goods), e-carriers as well as electric light goods carriers’ light commercial vehicles and also for electric tractors as per the existing rules.The policy provides retro-fitment incentive at 15 per cent of the cost to a maximum of ` 15,000 per vehicle for first 5,000 retrofit 3-seater auto-rickshaws. To power these vehicles, the policy said the TS Electricity Regulatory Commission will provide a special tariff category for EV charging stations.TSREDCO, the state nodal agency, will establish public charging stations directly or under the licensee, franchise or PPP model at airports, railway/metro stations, parking lots, bus depots, markets, petrol stations, malls - electric poles.

Residential townships with over 1,000 families will be encouraged to develop charging stations lots.The policy stipulates setting up charging or battery swapping stations every 50 km within the state boundaries on the highways to cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, followed by other national and state highways. To encourage the use of EV vehicles, the policy offers parking facilities with charging points for two-wheelers at Metro Rail and bus stations.

Night-time community parking with a charging facility in PPP mode is to be set up for e-autos, shared taxis and public transport vehicles within industrial zones.A battery disposal infrastructure model shall be created to facilitate deployment of used EV batteries.  The government will provide incentives to the EV and ESS sectors as per the Electronics Policy 2016.For the mega and strategic projects, the government will extend tailor-made benefits on a case to case basis.

An investment of more than `200 crore in plant and machinery or employing more than 1,000 persons shall be categorised as a mega project and these will get capital investment subsidy of 20 per cent of investment capped at `30 crore.