In the next couple of years, the number of e-rickshaws and e-cart is set to grow four fold on Indian roads as about 300 manufacturers have lined up for the production of 41 lakh such electric vehicle.
This is set to increase congestion on the road while the government is also concerned about low rates of registration of these vehicles. Currently, one lakh of approximately 10 lakh rickshaws are registered in the country. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have more than 70 percent share of the registered ones. This is despite the government having made it for all rickshaws to register with the transport department. Maharashtra, transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s home state, has only 184 such electric vehicles registered. Eight other states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha have not registered a single e-rickshaw.
After the Centre’s advisory committee on e-rickshaw cited that state governments are not taking steps to facilitate registration and charging high taxes, Gadkari on Monday asked his ministers to get states to rationalise taxes and other charges since these are zero emission vehicles and are primarily aimed at providing employment to the poor.
While Delhi charges Rs 4,000 as fee for e-rickshaw for two years at the time of registration, in Uttar Pradesh it’s about Rs12,000 and in West bengal approximately Rs 15,000. According to The TOI, Anuj Sharma chairman of the advisory committee on e-rickshaw said that high charges are discouraging people to register their vehicle and that is responsible for large number of unregistered vehicles plying on road. These are unsafe as these don’t have insurance cover.
