Odisha govt. to promote e- rickshaw for clean environment

21 March, Bhubaneswar

The Odisha government has decided to encourage and promote e-rickshaws to keep the environment clean in urban areas.

Presiding over a high level meeting Chief Secretary A P Padhi today directed the department to provide tax waiver incentives to e-rickshaws.

He also directed the officials to initiate appropriate steps for moving out of the old and more polluting public vehicles from the city routes in a phased manner. Sources said the meeting decided to augment the city bus services operating in various urban local bodies in the coming years.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mathivathanan said at present seven SPVs are operating in various ULBs for running and management of the city bus services. As many as 329 buses are running in 67 routes of the ULBs with around 88,500 ridership per day.

Chief Secretary advised the SPVs to focus more on the intra-city connectivity and communication. He directed to fix the intra-city routes and number of buses to ply on the routes depending on the requirement of the people The meeting decided to link the city with its nearest industrial and growth centers through the bus service.BM