In another bid to promote electric vehicles in India, so that the government can hope to meet its targets for electrification, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said today at the 58th SIAM convention that all EVs and cars that use alternate fuels such as bio-fuel, ethanol, methanol and CNG will now be exempt from any commercial permits.

Depending on the use of the commercial vehicle, they are required to have permits like contract carriage bus, stage carrier, goods carrier, radio taxi, maxi cab and all-India tourist. These permits are known to be costly to get and renew.

With this new policy, the government has cleared a number of hurdles for vehicle owners and fleet operators and will ease the adoption of cars that run on alternate fuels and electric vehicles, thus helping to curb the rising air pollution in the country.

The government has also recently finalised the second phase of FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles) India scheme that includes an investment of about Rs 5,500 crore over five years to provide subsidies for all types of electric vehicles.