Nagpur Metro Might Run On Broad Gauge Indian Railways Tracks To Connect Nearby Towns With Orange City

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April 27, 2018

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari today (27 April) said that there are plans to run the Nagpur Metro’s coaches on the Indian Railways’ broad gauge railway tracks, reports PTI. The plan, mooted by Gadkari who represents Nagpur in the Lok Sabha is to connect the winter capital of Maharashtra to nearby towns like Kotal, Bhandara, Ramtek and Wardha.

Nagpur Metro, like most other metro rail systems in India will have 1,435 mm-wide standard gauge coaches manufactured by China’s CRCC while Indian Railways uses the 1,676 mm-wide broad gauge track.

Gadkari said that the idea was originally proposed by him and accepted by the railways. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) will likely be signed between the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha Metro) which is implementing the Nagpur Metro Project and the Indian Railways after the Karnataka state assembly elections scheduled for mid-May.

The entire train will be air-conditioned with four coaches and operate at a speed of 100 km/hr.

Solar Power In India – Several Bright Spots Amidst Periodic Question Marks

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Indian Infra Hub Staff

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April 27, 2018

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Snapshot

For the first time in India’s power generation history, the financial year 2017-18 saw renewable energy production breach the 1 lakh Gigawatt-hour mark.In two years, the recently inaugurated Pavagada Solar Park in Karnataka will reach its full 2 GW installed capacity making it the largest single-site solar plant in the world.

Indian solar power generation is going through interesting but highly dichotomous times. On the one hand, India has made rapid strides in the expansion of the installed capacity. On the other hand, this expansion, along with demand-side factors, has been highly deflationary for the power generation industry as a whole. This industry firms seem to be on the downward slope of the J-curve, waiting for that trigger to see a sustained upward slope of growth. But this is not stopping the march of solar energy expansion by any means.

For the first time in India’s power generation history, the financial year 2017-18 saw renewable energy production breach the 1 lakh Gigawatt-hour mark. This achievement came almost at the end of the financial year on 29 March, tracked by the National Load Dispatch Centre of the Power Systems Operations Company (POSOCO).

Recently, the city of Diu, a centrally administered territory, became the first city in India to generate its entire day-time power requirement through solar. This small city has historically been dependent on Gujarat to supply almost all its power. This changed with the Smart Cities mission. Diu set up a 9 Megawatt (MW) solar plant and installed another 1.3 MW capacity using government building rooftops. Diu also started incentivising rooftop solar installations, paying Rs 10,000 subsidy for every kilowatt (KW) of installed capacity. Running entirely on solar power during day-time, even negotiating the summer peaks is no mean achievement for any Indian city.

Gandhinagar in Gujarat also aspires to use solar as its predominant power supply source. The city is working towards creating a 5 MW captive installed base, using government and private residential buildings to put up generation units.

The Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet and Expo (RE-Invest) event, which took place in early 2015, set the tone for India’s renewable energy expansion. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, who has used stretch targets for his governance achievements in various areas, declared that India will hit 100 GW of solar and 75 GW of wind installed capacity by 2022. This was ambitious because when Modi took over as the PM, India did not even have 3 GW of installed solar base. But between 2014 and now, India has increased the solar base 8 times, closing in on 21 GW as of March 2018.

All large Indian states barring the ones in the east have been competing against each other to expand their solar footprint. At various points in the last four years, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana have looked like bagging the top solar producer spot. But as of April 2018, Karnataka has raced ahead, after the Pavagada Solar Park was inaugurated with its 600 MW capacity. The solar park will reach its full 2 GW installed capacity in another two years and will make it the largest single-site solar plant in the world. That distinction is currently held by the Kamuthi facility in Tamil Nadu with a 648 MW capacity.

India has also used solar power creatively in the last few years. The government is currently running a 100 per cent village electrification drive, which should complete by the end of May. Several of the 18,452 villages where this drive was started in August 2015, will see power reaching them through off-grid, distributed solar units. These solar units have been used in remote hilly areas in the North East, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir. Then there are installations in deep forests, where grid connectivity and cabling is always a challenge. One such example is Sunderbans, where solar micro-grids have helped light up villages, and locals have learnt how to maintain these units, also resulting in collateral skills development upside. Government promotion LED bulbs and other power equipment which can run on direct current also makes it easier to use localised, distributed solar grids.

Another innovative use of solar power has been in promoting solar pumps for agriculture use. The government has recently launched the Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme, which envisages investing ₹1.4 lakh crore in agriculture solar sector. This includes central government assistance of Rs 48,000 crores. The central government wants to promote installation of about 18 lakh solar pumps across the country as well as move the existing 8 GW pump capacity to solar. The government will also move its tube wells which consume capacity of 8 GW to solar power. Solar power generation capacity of 10 GW would be added on barren lands across the country to support this initiative.

The states will also support this initiative as it will gradually reduce the load on their distribution companies (discoms) to supply power for agriculture. Standalone, off-grid solar power works well for agriculture as the peak hours of generation also coincide with peak hours of use and the power for operating agricultural equipment is not needed round the clock.

Indian discoms are obliged to use renewable power as part of their power supply. This is known as renewable power obligations (RPOs). Since RPO requirement may not always match the renewable generation capacity in a state, discoms trade in Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) on designated power exchanges in the country. These certificates are then used to source renewable power as required and can be traded on exchanges. The Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has been seeing a healthy supply of solar power based RECs after the trading resumed earlier this year. This REC trading was stayed by the Supreme Court in July 2017 on account of a dispute between solar power producers and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).

Despite the general euphoria on capacity expansion, there have been some glitches hitting the solar sector in the recent times. The solar power developers were hit by two problems.

Firstly, after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), there was some confusion on how the solar panels were classified. The tax authorities were threatening levying import duties on panels coming in from China, which tend to be 8-10 per cent cheaper than the ones manufactured locally. This had resulted in several importers not clearing their stocks at various ports, most notably Chennai. This issue of HSN code classification was recently resolved by the Finance Ministry. However, India is still considering a safeguard duty on imports, a decision on which is pending. The request for this duty was made by the local manufacturers.

Secondly, solar auctions conducted by various states had seen tariffs fall at a regular pace. In the second half of 2017, solar tariffs crashed almost 50 per cent year on year, with the lowest tariff discovered at Bhadla in Rajasthan at Rs 2.44 per unit. These tariffs were not sustainable for several producers. Many solar auctions in the last few months have been cancelled as states were expecting tariffs around Rs 3 per unit, while producers were discovering Rs 3.2 to Rs3.5 per unit in auctions. States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka have had issues in the recent past running their solar auctions.

Until there is clarity on duties and until auctions end around ₹3 per unit, neither the states nor the producers are going to be happy. This short-term cloud continues to hover on the sector and may impact new investments in the next three to six months.

Despite these challenges, in the financial year 2017-18, renewable capacity addition of about 12 GW far outstripped the increase in coal-based power generation which was limited to 5 GW. Coal-based plants are stressed due to the availability of other options and lack of demand, and in the near term, this problem will anyway exacerbate with solar capacity additions keeping pace despite operational challenges. As a whole, 20.1 per cent of all power generation capacity in India is now renewable, a milestone hit in March 2018.

A recent research report by the University of Technology (LUT) in Finland stated that India will have the capacity to operate on a fully renewable electricity system by 2050. This may sound preposterous but the research accounts for massive investments in storage technology to achieve this end. India’s International Solar Alliance (ISA) leadership has convinced the international community that the audacious renewable energy targets set are achievable.

Through ups and downs of the short term, the Indian solar market is on a secular uptrend.

Aashish Chandorkar writes on public policy, politics, and current affairs. He is based in Pune. He tweets at @c_aashish.

Railways To Raise Rs 40 Billion For Redevelopment Of 50 Stations

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Indian Infra Hub Staff

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April 26, 2018

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The Indian Railways Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) is all set to start work on the first phase of its ambitious station redevelopment project soon, reports Business Standard. The company is likely to raise Rs 40 billion from the market to redevelop 50 stations across India, thus becoming the second agency under the Ministry of Railways (MoR) to raise money from the markets after the Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC).

In order to avoid delays due to procedural issues such as the requirement of a rating in order to raise money, the Railways will enter a build-operate-transfer (BOT) annuity deal with the IRSDC. The Railways is looking to redevelop stations on its own under engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) model after it evinced poor interest from private players for the redevelopment of 21 stations under a public-private partnership (PPP).

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) gave its green signal recently to proceed with a few stations, thus prompting the Railways to start with 50 stations against all 600 proposed ones.

Railway officials indicate that there has been a good response from major firms in the infrastructure sector for three stations – Bijaswan and Anand Vihar in Delhi and Chandigarh railway station – for a total of Rs 6.8 billion.

Under the revised plan, 20 per cent of the overall area being used for development will be residential while 80 per cent will be used for commercial purposes.

Two stations allotted earlier – Habibganj in Bhopal and Gandhinagar railway station in the capital of Gujarat – are due to be commissioned by December this year.

Can The National Urban Policy Unlock The Potential Of Indian Cities?

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Indian Infra Hub Staff

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April 24, 2018

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Snapshot

India is witnessing urbanisation at a rapid pace. However, urbanisation needs direction, and the National Urban Policy can deliver that.In essence, the Policy should give wings to Indian cities and pave the way for a shift to a middle-income and higher income society.

India is on the verge of formulating and establishing its first National Urban Policy (NUP). The NUP will be an overarching policy statement that will set the direction for the country’s urbanisation. The Government of India has formed a panel of urban experts who are currently working towards establishing this framework.

What is NUP and what can it achieve?

An NUP is a guiding document that can provide a direction to the rapid pace of urbanisation that India is currently witnessing. The NUP should enable prioritisation of urbanisation challenges so that it can direct its infrastructure investments, projects, and schemes accordingly.

Rapid urbanisation has created challenges in Indian cities that include slum formation, access to basic services like water supply and sanitation, failure in or non-implementation of urban planning norms, failures in urban governance processes, huge gap in the provision of adequate transport infrastructure, and so on.

Cities are complex, and each of a city’s issues rarely exists in isolation. Each challenge needs cross-sectoral interventions. Any action or investment to resolve an issue tends to have consequences that directly impact the dynamics of other issues. Urban issues are sometimes better resolved at a specific government hierarchy. So, solutions to urban issues sometimes need local intervention while at other times, they need state or central intervention. An NUP should offer a clear directive to urban policymakers at all levels of government to bring in a more cohesive approach to urban planning and urban infrastructure investments.

Cities everywhere tend to work in isolation. That is, urban governments tend to become so focused on local action and intervention that larger understanding and adherence to overarching urbanisation goals are relegated to the background. A strong and definitive NUP helps cities assess their urban planning and investment decisions vis-à-vis the goals and objectives stated by it.

UN-Habitat, the United Nations programme to build a better urban future, has created a framework for the creation of an NUP. Accordingly, the formulation of an NUP should help India achieve the following:

1. Identify urban development priorities so that they fit in with national- and state-level goals.

2. Provide guidance on reforming urban planning, urban legislation, and urban governance systems.

3. Provide a cohesive understanding and coordination between national, state, and local urban policymakers.

4. Provide guidance to generate a local urban policy and project action in terms of making private and public investments in urban infrastructure.

Harnessing the horse of urbanisation

Urbanisation is seen as a chaotic process, particularly in India, where hordes of rural migrants enter cities every day for their livelihood. Urbanisation, per se, has received a negative connotation, and India’s romanticism with the rural life or its villages still remains, both in policy and politics.

A World Bank’s development report of 2009 states that no country in the world has made a shift to a middle-income society without industrialisation, and no country has moved into the higher income group without harnessing the power of its cities. So cities are vital to a nation’s overall economic, social, and sustainable development. Arguments to create “self-sustaining villages” and such as “India resides in its villages” are slowly losing importance in the current development narrative. This is not because of a certain political inclination, but because of where India is poised in her phase of development.

It is thus apparent that India’s position will either see a take-off or end up a non-starter if the country does not harness the potential of its horses, namely the cities. The NUP should be an instrument that addresses this situation. In other words, the NUP should be a framework that gives wings to Indian cities.

Thematics of the National Urban Policy

While aiming for the four primary objectives, the NUP should address four thematic areas that need immediate attention in Indian cities – urban legislation, urban economy, urban planning and design, and urban governance institutions. UN-Habitat has named the first three thematics, which it specifies as absolutely necessary in an NUP, to make any effective change to the urbanisation processes in a country. The fourth thematic needs inclusion, as governance institutions need an overhaul if we are to move towards building cities that will be economic powerhouses for the country.

a) Urban legislation

All laws pertaining to urbanisation, urban planning, and urban governance fall under this thematic. There is an urgent need to address the outdated, conflicting, and superseding laws, rules, and acts that form the entire baggage of urban legislation. A plethora of these exist today, dating from the pre-independence period. Laws pertaining to land, access to land, and land use need serious reform if we are to move towards an effective urbanisation policy. It is constantly argued that the urban land shortage is entirely due to unreformed urban legislation. The complexities of negotiating urban land access along with ad hoc legislative interpretations and the use of discretionary powers at the local levels, dilute or aggravate the issues of urbanisation.

b) Urban economy

This is an area that remains outside the scope of city governance and performance. An urban economic policy for each city is important to be able to harness its economic development potential. Rightly called “engines of growth”, each city in India needs an economic policy. Having neglected this area, cities are currently struggling to understand their investment priorities and thereby creating an ad hoc decision-making environment. With crumbling infrastructure and lack of investment, the potential for the economic growth of cities is getting stifled. City administrations tend to forget the purpose of a city’s existence, which is to generate economic dividends for the development of the nation.

c) Urban planning and design

Every state in India has its version of the Regional & Town Planning Act, under which urban planning and design processes are nested. A lot of time and effort is spent in making urban land use plans for Indian cities. The entire process is cumbersome and fraught with data interpretations. This is mainly due to the fact that data collection in cities remains very weak.

Except in the four metros of India and other large cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, urban planning departments are not established as a permanent feature within the government. It is only when 20-year urban plans are to be prepared that a ‘makeshift’ department is created, and the unenviable task of urban planning falls on the shoulders of officers deputed for the task from other departments. This is a lost battle right from the beginning, as these makeshift departments lack any information about cities that show trends over a period of time. Thus, except for some basic population trends, vehicle counts, and some real estate data, this department is expected to plan for the city. It’s an impossible task, even for the most accomplished of planners. Conflicting land uses and land scarcity in cities drive the urban planning processes into a give-and-take of vested interests, thereby derailing and discrediting the entire planning exercise.

For example, in Pune, the Development Plan for the city, for a period stretching from 2007 to 2027, took 10 years to complete. So the plan that began its preparation in 2006 finally culminated in state government approval only in 2017, exactly after half of the period of its implementation was, as per the plan, over.

d) Urban governance institutions

The institutions that are formed under various urban legislation, need urgent reform. The capacity of these institutions needs serious augmentation as India moves towards greater urbanisation and better cities. There are two aspects that form an urban institution. One is the elected or the political component and the other is the administrative component. For urban government institutions to work more effectively, reforms are required in areas such as election and empowerment of the mayor, candidate proficiency for posts, tenure of officers, promotions, pay scales, and regular training programmes that will yield positive benefits to the government. The NUP should address and guide the concerns faced in this sector and be able to provide a directive for reforming urban government institutions.

Let demonstrative pilot projects drive NUP implementation

Usually, a policy formulation never details itself out into projects or schemes. One of the criticisms of policy-making is that it tends to remain on paper, with lofty terms and sweeping intentions. However, on the ground, most policies fail to take off. However, in case of the NUP, it should outline some overarching projects or schemes that will get completed in a time-bound manner to impact urbanisation in India. UN-Habitat’s NUP framework uses the term ‘acupuncture’ projects. Acupuncture projects are those that will, to some extent, test the policy that is being formulated. These demonstrative projects can be used to show implementation of the NUP. For example, if the NUP identifies immediate reform of the urban legislation pertaining to land, an immediate, time-bound pilot project needs to be taken up and completed to showcase how a reform in legislation can be done. This will also make an assessment of the NUP and its effectiveness, thereby making the NUP more robust.

Indian cities need a robust framework of urban policy that can guide its development. The country’s trudge towards a middle-income and higher income society can only be realised if her cities unleash their potential. Hope the NUP is able to do just that.

Anagha is an architect and environmental planner. She tweets at @anaghapp.

MahaMetro: Underprivileged Nagpurkars Get Free Rides As City Gears Up For Metro Launch

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Indian Infra Hub Staff

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April 24, 2018

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Having been granted the nod from the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) for a small at-grade section between the Khapri Depot and Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MahaMetro) has decided to start offering free rides to underprivileged sections of the society, reports The Times of India. Nagpur Metro had made headlines in October when it became the fastest metro rail project to reach the trial stages in a record of two and a half years.

On Saturday (21 April), around 100 people from Ram Ingole’s school for orphans Vimalashram, the Matru Sewa Sangh’s old age home, and students of a school for the deaf and mute took a ride along with Marathi actors Swapnil Joshi, Pranali Ghoghre and Sachin Pilgaonkar on the train.

MahaMetro managing director Brijesh Dixit said that the aim of these free joyrides was to inculcate the appropriate behaviour and culture for Metro Rails among Nagpurkars.

They should learn about dos and don’ts while riding the Metro. We want this to happen before commercial operation begins on Sitabuldi-Mihan stretch in March 2019.
MahaMetro Managing Director Brijesh Dixit
Officials are aiming for an inauguration of Maharashtra’s winter capital’s metro rail on 1 May – Maharashtra Day – by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari who represent the city in the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively.

The stretch from Hingna Depot to Subhash Nagar on the second line of the Metro is expected to be open by December this year while the stretch from Sitabuldi to Mihan near the airport is expected to be thrown open by next March. The 43 km-long Nagpur Metro with 40 stations across two lines saw construction begin in November 2015.

Also Read: From Tracks To Trials: Nagpur’s Maha Metro Chugs Along And Reaches Trial Stages In A Record Two-Year Period

India Needs An Electric-Vehicle Policy; Here’s How It Can Go About It

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Indian Infra Hub Staff

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April 19, 2018

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Snapshot

For a large-scale electric vehicles push, the government will have to think beyond incentives and tax cuts.
What’s required is a comprehensive programme spanning years and involving several government departments and focused implementation.

In May 2017, the then Union power minister Piyush Goyal said India was looking at an all-electric car fleet by 2030. Several countries across the globe have also made similar plans, with France and the United Kingdom proposing a ban on all petrol- and diesel-powered cars by 2040. This had come after the announcement by Chinese automobile manufacturer Volvo Cars that it would manufacture only electric vehicles from 2019.

In India, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, had later said that the government would “bulldoze” the automobile industry out of petrol and diesel vehicles. He also said that the government was looking at setting up exclusive lanes for electric vehicles on highways, with overhead cables for power supply, similar to how electric locomotives operate.

At the state level, Karnataka approved an electric-vehicle policy with an aim to drive more research into these vehicles and to encourage manufacturers to set up shop in the state. Maharashtra unveiled its policy much later, offering incentives to prospective electric-vehicle owners and also for setting up charging stations. Significantly, the Union government said there was no need for an electric-vehicle policy at the federal level.

At the city level, Nagpur geared up for an electric mass-transit project through a tie-up with Ola Cabs, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Kinetic Green for e-rickshaws and electric cabs. Unfortunately, the project didn’t take off as expected due to unsustainability of the initiative.

The government has, however, done quite a bit to promote the use of electric vehicles in India. The problem lies squarely with the direction of these policies. For starters, the policy in Maharashtra primarily subsidises vehicles and the charging infrastructure without going into the intricacies. While Karnataka’s electric-vehicle policy talks about research and development, it is also focused heavily on manufacturing within the state, which isn’t really going to go anywhere significant.

So, what should India’s electric-vehicle policy look like?

Adoption of electric vehicles in India will take a multi-pronged approach that goes beyond incentives and tax cuts. It would require a large programme stretching over several years, covering multiple departments across various ministries, and needs proper implementation in a federal manner that includes all levels of government – Centre, states, and cities.

Hybrids as a bridge between fuel-powered and electric vehicles

The first step towards going electric would be to start moving towards hybrid vehicles. Globally, diesel-electric commercial vehicles and petrol-electric small vehicles have been on the roads since 1999. As of 2016, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) had a market share of 2 per cent in the United States (US). Data from the American Public Transportation Association said that in 2015, 41 per cent of the buses used in public transport in the country ran either on alternative fuels – biodiesel, propane, ultra-low Sulphur diesel, and compressed natural gas – or were HEVs. In India, it is only in the last few months that HEVs have made an appearance on the streets, in Mumbai. Research in alternative fuels took off in the last decade, the most well-known one being Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation’s plans to blend honge, palm, sunflower, groundnut, coconut, and sesame with biodiesel in 2009.

In the context of cars, the HEV concept is still new in India. Automotive majors such as Maruti and Honda are yet to launch their HEV models in the country.

The reason to go in for hybrids is simple. Due to its dual-fuel nature, it has a longer range. HEVs also have a greater fuel efficiency. For example, the latest model of Suzuki’s Swift in Japan has an ideal fuel efficiency of 22.6km per litre while its hybrid variant with a 10kW battery has an efficiency of 30km per litre. The largest-selling HEV in the US and Japan, Toyota Prius has an average fuel consumption of less than four litres per 100km. It has an average of 95mi per gallon (40 km per litre) gasoline (petrol) equivalent. “Miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (MPGe)” is the unit used by the US Environmental Protection Agency to measure the energy consumption of vehicles running on alternative fuels and HEVs.

While the US and Japan introduced HEVs decades ago, it is not too late for India to push for HEVs today. These vehicles will allow the market to set up the requisite charging infrastructure that will then form the backbone for a full-fledged shift to electric vehicles.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry’s plan to allow older vehicles to ply as hybrid vehicles in 2016 can be considered as the first step in this direction. However, it seemed to be a move merely to allow older vehicles to remain on the road when a Supreme Court ban was looming.

Going after large fleets

The first priority of the government should be to target larger vehicles and fleets of vehicles such as buses for public transport and not go around subsidising personal cars. Since public transport in India is a near-monopoly of various governments, thus operating on public funds, it would be easier for the government to go in for a scheme similar to Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). State transport undertakings also have a lot of land available with them to set up the required charging infrastructure as well as storage facilities for the power required. Along with intra-city buses, the focus should also lie on short-distance inter-city routes such as the Mumbai-Pune or Chennai-Puducherry corridors, which are less than 200km apart.

Getting the bus fleet to go electric should be a priority simply because subsidising cars would add more vehicles on the roads across cities. The next step would be to target fleets of commercial vehicles, primarily taxis and ride-sharing vehicles. While Ola’s Nagpur pilot didn’t take off as expected, lessons need to be learned from the failure, and those issues need to be fixed first. News reports suggest that the project failed due to unsustainability for the drivers. The first step would be to find out why and then look at how it can be solved, whether using the existing framework in place, or after formulating a newer policy. Similar to Ola, Uber also decided to focus on an electric fleet in partnership with Mahindra. Along with taxis, the autorickshaw segment is also slowly gaining ground with Kinetic, Mahindra, and other manufacturers launching electric variants.

The logic behind getting taxis and auto-fleets on board is the same as buses. Taxi stands or rickshaw stands across cities can set up the necessary charging infrastructure easier than others.

A positive step was the government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, under which buses were given 60 per cent subsidy while cars were given 10 per cent subsidy. Government think tank NITI Aayog’s plan to go electric for public transport in select cities and set a deadline for diesel vehicles further adds more momentum to the conversion.

Augment power capacity and set up an independent grid

India’s power consumption is increasing rapidly. The key reasons for this are: large-scale rural electrification, electrification of the entire railway network, more metro rail projects becoming operational, and increased requirements of the industrial sector. In addition, there is also the electric-vehicle sector that will have a role to play in the near future. India will have to focus heavily on power generation and distribution. While the coal sector will remain active for some time, the country needs to focus on long-term capabilities, especially nuclear. To supply to the high demand that electric vehicles alone will raise, we will certainly need more than a 100 operational nuclear reactors across the country.

While solar energy is touted as the cleanest source of energy, it is no secret that solar generation is high on maintenance, toxic in nature, and causes instability in the grid – something we can ill-afford if every vehicle is running on electric power.

The second thing to consider is whether the grid can handle the load. American bus manufacturer Proterra in 2016 introduced its fast-charging platform (while also opening up the patents) which would allow a bus with a 100kW battery to charge in merely 10 minutes. However, to supply so much power in such a short period, the grid must be capable of doing it. The safest way to ensure that would be to set up a separate grid for the charging sector.

The 2012 blackout in North India was caused due to Punjab and Haryana drawing more power from the grid, causing the frequency of power supply to fluctuate, leading to the grid collapse. Mumbai, on the other hand, has managed to escape from most blackouts due to its Island Grid, which isolates it from the rest of the network. The electric-vehicle charging grid also needs to isolate itself from the rest of the supply and distribution network to prevent blackouts. Otherwise 20 buses using the fast-charge option simultaneously will see the entire sector plunge into darkness.

An alternative to a separate grid would be to have the charging stations have battery storage, which would not draw heavy power from the grid. This functions in many ways similar to a stabiliser, but may not be suited for all locations.

Deregulation of charging infrastructure

Now, for any plan to succeed, the government will have to leverage the private sector into working together. In case of the electric vehicle sector, charging infrastructure has to be deregulated to allow any interested party to set up charging points. This can include malls, apartment complexes, and other commercial spaces. However, proper regulation must be in place to ensure that they are connected to the right grid.

Making sure that residential areas have charging points will enable faster adoption of electric vehicles, and deregulation will motivate developers to implement it on a larger scale to allow the general public to use it. Further, the government could allow individuals to lease out parking spaces similar to Japan or the US – it would aid in setting up an ad hoc network of charging points across cities.

Leveraging the EESL and going domestic

The state-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) – which shot to prominence for distributing low-cost light emitting diode bulbs, tube lights, and fans – is the nodal agency that the government has appointed to work on investments relating to powering up India’s electric-vehicle scenario. EESL is procuring nearly 20,000 electric vehicles, investing heavily in grid storage in Canada, fast-charging technology, and more.

EESL’s work is laudable and it needs to continue. However, as far as procuring electric vehicles is concerned, EESL should change its focus to batteries. Batteries are the most expensive component in an electric vehicle and therefore, it makes more sense if the EESL procures them for automobile manufacturers in India rather than procuring the entire vehicle itself. The cost of importing and then selling subsidised batteries to manufacturers would work out cheaper in the long run. This would also spur domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles.

Another factor to be considered is that most of India’s electric buses today are manufactured by China’s BYD – the world’s largest electric-vehicle manufacturer – and only assembled in India by Hyderabad-based Goldstone. Three of India’s major bus manufacturers – Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Eicher – have electric models ready, but they are not popular. Pune-based KPIT also has a range of electric buses, one of which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament.

This is where NITI Aayog’s proposal to have only electric vehicles for public transport comes in. The shift must be in phases, and to avail of the subsidy, the government must put in a simple condition – the bus must at least be assembled in India. While four domestic manufacturers already exist, with the fifth one, Goldstone, investing Rs 500 crore for its second assembly plant in India – this will certainly work.

A good model to emulate here partially, once again out of the US’ playbook, is the Buy America Act of 1983 and its implementation by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Under the Act, the FTA provides only financial assistance if certain components of the rolling stock – particularly steel, iron, and manufactured goods – are produced domestically. While India need not go to such extremes, it can set the bar at local assembly for starters, essentially making us a screwdriver manufacturing ecosystem. This can be slowly extended to sourcing a bare minimum of components domestically towards a later stage. Last year, the Centre mandated that 75 per cent of the coaches for all metro projects be sourced domestically.

Investing heavily in R&D and overhauling the Indian education system

The most important part of India’s electric-vehicle policy is a massive push towards research and development (R&D). The fruits of R&D in the sector will not only have an effect on electric vehicles but also on other sectors, including the power sector, space sector, and more.

While we are still getting used to lithium-ion batteries, the world is moving to newer technologies. For instance, China Railway Rolling Corporation (CRRC) manufactures electric buses that run on a 60,000 farad supercapacitor and can be fully charged in 30 seconds.

Researchers at Cambridge are looking at the lithium-air battery – considered the holy grail of batteries – to replace lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-air batteries contain oxygen in them that allow for a higher energy density in the battery and can operate across more charge cycles than a standard lithium-ion battery.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric has been working on a prototype system to transmit electricity wirelessly using microwaves. While the primary purpose of the system is to transmit electricity from solar power satellites to the Earth, Mitsubishi has stated its intentions of using the system to charge electric vehicles in the future.

Sweden recently inaugurated what it called an ‘electrified road’, which is basically an electrified track running along the road that vehicles can charge, much like the third rail used in railway systems. France and China have opened up ‘photovoltaic highways’ that generate electricity using solar energy and then transmit them to vehicles driving over them.

To keep up with all this, the government needs to establish scholarships in the field of battery storage, charging technology, and efficiency of the vehicle’s overall components. Research grants need to be set up, and engineering colleges need to be granted more autonomy to inculcate a research atmosphere.

Skilling the populace

Going entirely electric will have a huge impact on jobs in a country like India. Due to the lack of fuel-related components, the total number of components in an electric vehicle comes down by a huge margin. Further, most of these are completely electronic, thus requiring highly skilled personnel to fix problems that may crop up. This would undoubtedly put a lot of roadside mechanics out of a job, but it is the right time for us to start skilling our population for the move.

When Gadkari said he wouldn’t allow driverless cars in India because of the jobs lost, clearly the job losses due to electric vehicles – potentially higher – were not given a thought.

Introducing a sunset policy

No electric-vehicle policy will work without a proper sunset policy in place to phase out the existing system. In order for the switch to electric vehicles to succeed, the government will have to focus on two separate sunset policies.

The first sunset policy, as suggested by NITI Aayog last year, would be to slowly phase out diesel-based vehicles. It should then be extended to petrol and then compressed natural gas vehicles as well. However, it needs to be done in a phased manner. Last year, Himachal Pradesh was forced to operate only electric buses through the Rohtang Pass by an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The NGT’s order was to use electric buses to “protect the fragile ecology” of the area. While charging points were installed at Manali and Marhi, it is pertinent to remember that Himachal Pradesh is located in the Himalayas and therefore electric buses may not be well-suited to handle the rough terrain. Further, if the battery does run out and needs to be charged, it merely increases the amount of time taken to complete the journey.

The sunset policy needs to uncover in phases, starting with public transport and fleet services. Once the switch to electric vehicles starts, an additional pollution control cess can be levied on existing vehicles to encourage the shift.

The second sunset policy is for subsidies within the electric-vehicle policy itself. At some point, government subsidies would have to give way to allow the market to take over and start filling the supply-demand gap, and the electric-vehicle movement would have reached critical mass. Subsidies can then be slowly reversed and market economics can take over.

Conversion of existing fuel stations to charging stations

According to the last count, India has over 56,000 fuel stations, of which nearly 51,000 belongs to the three state-owned oil companies – Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, and Bharat Petroleum. Keeping in mind that electric vehicles will first arrive on the urban scene, the government can start by adding a charging point at all the urban ones alone. These charging stations can be equipped with a fast-charge option at a premium rate. For most people, a trip to these stations would be for a quick 20 per cent charge to reach home or work, where the vehicle can then charge normally. The time required to charge the battery minimally would then be on par with the time taken to fill a tank with petrol or diesel.

Revenue augmentation

India, like many other countries, builds its transport infrastructure partly using a cess charged on fuel sales. If fuel sales go down, then an important source of revenue will also go down. Since electricity will certainly be cheaper than fuel, a cess per unit of electricity can then be added once the electric vehicle switch reaches critical mass to compensate for the losses from fuel sales. However, since India’s fuel imports will go down, the money otherwise spent on importing and processing crude oil can be repurposed.

A 2016 study, released by the American Lung Association, found that zero-emission vehicles would reduce expenditure on healthcare and the environment by a huge margin. The study found that if by 2020 every vehicle sold is either an electric vehicle, HEV, or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, and these vehicles formed over 65 per cent of the total vehicles on the road, then the 10 states that have adopted stringent emission norms in the US would save close to $20.5 billion (Rs 13,370 crore) annually in healthcare costs. In India, where population densities are higher in our urban segments, the saving on public healthcare would drop even more drastically. The healthcare budget can then be repurposed, similar to fuel import savings.

India does need an electric vehicle policy badly, and a vast and complex one at that which can address the multiplicity of issues that are otherwise bound to crop up. While subsidising electric vehicles as the first step seems fine, heavy vehicles need to be targeted first. At the same time, threats to the industry to fall in line won’t work both when the demand and supply are negligible, and those cheering such statements should tread cautiously.

The author would like to thank Kundan Srivastav and Jaideep Prabhu for their inputs.

Srikanth’s interests include public transit, urban management and transportation infrastructure.

India Needs An Electric-Vehicle Policy; Here’s How It Can Go About It

By

Indian Infra Hub Staff

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April 19, 2018

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Snapshot

For a large-scale electric vehicles push, the government will have to think beyond incentives and tax cuts.What’s required is a comprehensive programme spanning years and involving several government departments and focused implementation.