Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, on Wednesday, underlined the importance of using electric vehicles to make Hyderabad a pollution free city.
An official release from the Chief Minister's office stated that representatives from China's Build Your Dreams (BYD), an automobile manufacturer, which makes 100 percent electric vehicles, revealed their intentions to the chief minister of establishing a production unit in Hyderabad to manufacture electric vehicles.
According to the release, Rao conveyed his approval for the said projects, saying that his government would extend all the help required.
The Chief Minister also expressed his concerns over the alarming pollution levels in his city, saying that day-by-day the pollution due to vehicles was on the increase in various towns and cities.
He suggested that the only way to control and curb the rising pollution was with the usage of electric vehicles, while claiming that in Telangana the usage of electric vehicles would be taken up soon and that a phase-wise introduction of 100 percent electric vehicles would be ensured in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), while private institutions would also be encouraged to use them.
Claiming that in the first phase, his government would place an order for the purchase of 500 vehicles, he said that there was a lot of potential across the country for usage of electric vehicles. He even undertook a brief journey in an electric bus designed and developed by BYD.
The BYD added that once charged, the vehicles would be able to move for approximately 300 to 400 kilometers and within three hours they can be fully recharged. They informed the Chief Minister that along with the buses they also manufacture cars, autos and trucks.
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