Islamabad: After announcing the first-ever electric vehicle policy in Junethis year, Pakistan is now all set to introduce battery-powered electricbuses in the country and in the first phase, they will run betweenIslamabad and Lahore.
An agreement was signed between China’s automobile giant, SkywellAutomobile and Daewoo Pakistan here today.
Under the Strategic Alliance Agreement Skywell Automobile will be settingup an electric vehicles chain throughout Pakistan and according to Science& Technology (S&T) Minister Fawad Chaudhry, the ultimate goal is to makethe buses running on roads in Pakistan reach zero-emission standards.
“Since Pakistan is moving towards an electrical vehicle regime, these newfuel-driven vehicles will help the country achieve that goal at afast-speed,” said Fawad Chaudhry at the agreement signing ceremony.
Earlier, in a tweet Chaudhry termed the agreement a big leap towards thefulfillment of another promise. “Pakistan will be having electric busesfrom this year and in the next three years we shall be in a position tomanufacture them locally,” said Chaudhry.
According to the S&T ministry, after buses, motorbikes will also be shiftedto electric power. Earlier, the very first electric vehicle chargingstation had also been established at Jinnah avenue Islamabad recently.
$30 billion investment
An automobile industry’s expert Zubair Warraich was of the view thatPakistan’s auto-industry was going to experience fast-track changes in nextfew years. “We are going to benefit from China’s unprecedented advancementin this sector”, he said adding China’s diesel bus manufacturing companyYutong and electric vehicles manufacturer Skywell were considered worldleaders in transport sector.
The company is going to make an investment of US$30 billion for provisionof bus units and to improve the country’s transport infrastructure, he said.
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This is not only going to give a boost to our economy but will alsogenerate hundreds and thousands of new jobs as well as employment andinvestment opportunities, he said.
Daewoo’s representative Sheriar Hussain said Pakistan’s transport industryis going through transition from diesel buses to hybrid. “We have seen inPeshawar’s BRT buses and now from hybrid to electric buses regime. Aboveall, its impact on our environment would be quite positive”, he said.
From hybrid to battery-powered buses
The environment has been the central point of the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) manifesto and the government has been working topromote the presence of environment-friendly vehicles and improve airquality in the big cities of the country.
Federal Minister for Power Division Umar Ayub Khan at the time ofinaugurating the first electric vehicle charging station in July hadannounced that the government would be setting up 24 more electric vehiclecharging stations across the country shortly.
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