India gets its first fleet of electric vehicles comprising of taxis, buses, e-rickshaw and autorickshaws all owned by online cab booking aggregator Ola.

The electric mass mobility system will bring about a significant change in the automobile and transportation industry in the country. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the project at the Nagpur Airport Complex on Friday. Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis was also present at the event.

To give this a wider acceptance, VAT (Value added Tax), road tax and registration for all electric vehicles will be put aside by Maharashtra government. All this is done so that electric cars becomes a future of our nation and other states can follow the same.

The project has planed its kick start with about 200 fleet electric vehicles including 100 Mahindra’s e2o Plus and rest of vehicles are from their original manufacturers like from Tata Motors, Kinetic, BYD and TVS. The total expenditure behind this project is more than 50 crores inclusive of the electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure. There are more than 50 charging points for the vehicles across four main locations in Nagpur.

Cab aggregator Ola’s Chief Executive Officer Bhavish Agarwal thanked the state government and other industry partners for supporting the initiative.