PMC General Body Gives NOD To E Bike Renting Project And EV- Charging Stations In Pune
Pune, 27 July 2020: In continuance with the preliminary sanction of PMC’s City Improvement Committee and the Opinion (Abhipray) given by the Road Department of PMC to Standing Committee and after 6 months from the approval by the Standing Committee, the General Body House of PMC co-jointly gave a go-ahead to the E-bike renting project along with setting up of 2000 EV Charging points and 3000 EV battery swapping points at 500 various locations across Pune city.
Ganesh Bidkar, Leader of the House said that in order to minimize the use of Petrol and Diesel vehicles that emit harmful gases and pollute the environment, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has co-jointly given nod to this project, which is expected to hit the road in a couple of months. The venture has been approved under the Green Pune initiative, wherein VTRO Motors Pvt. Ltd. will be taking charge of all the costs incurred for this project along with all the operations on a revenue-sharing basis with the PMC. Pune Municipal Corporation will not bear any cost for the entire project. Considering the rapid urbanization, officials feel that a project such as this one will promote a greener environment.
He also said, “E-bikes will ensure low-cost & end to end connectivity over Metro lines too.”
Co-founders of VTRO Motors Pvt. Ltd., Dr Heramb Shelke and Er. Pranit Parekar said that VTRO Motors have taken into consideration the full damage control/robbery issues of the previously run cycle project by developing IOT enabled, futuristic, mobile and GPS controlled bikes along with charging stations which has multiple sensors built in the units for the desired safety. Also, they are setting up a standard and fast chargers points along with the bikes which will be app-enabled for daily, monthly and weekly usage as per the choice of an individual which will vary from 0.99 paise per km to INR 3800/- for the entire month with unlimited km and free charging.
“We have now got approval for 2000 charging points and 3000 battery swapping across 500 locations in the city with 5 thousand bikes in 1st phase and are in pipeline with the other Municipal Corporations for setting up 50,000 charging points with a number of 25 Lakhs EV bikes across India within 36 months”, added the CFO, Mr Dipak Harne.
Punekars will create magic in the green revolution by using maximum EV bikes in the coming future and making Pune pollution-free, said former City Improvement Committee Chairman and Corporator, Amol Balwadkar who visioned this project for the city. The Pune Municipal Commissioner – Mr Vikram Kumar, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Estates) – Mr Kunal Khemnar and Chief Engineer (Roads) – Mr V.G Kulkarni have also given a principal nod to this upcoming project with certain conditions and said that the PMC will always support such projects that will add to the green revolution of the city.
Also, VTRO Motors Pvt. Ltd. has added a second company named E-Matrix Mile, which has agreed to extend support for this project with VTRO Motors Pvt. Ltd. with the goal of green and clean Pune. Hope this project will make Pune the benchmark in all the Smart Cities, across the country.
