Mobility
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Publishes Draft Standards for Road-Trains
To revolutionize the transport of goods and reduce the overall logistic costs, the Automotive Industry Standards Committee has amended its AIS-113 Standard to include the safety requirements of Road-Trains and has hosted the draft on Ministry of Road Transport & Highway’s website. The standards have been prepared after examining European benchmarks, keeping in mind Indian operating conditions. These standards shall pave the way for a breakthrough intervention for fast and efficient movement of goods along the long-distance freight corridors.
India calls for common global standards for green hydrogen
India pitched for common international standards for green hydrogen at the BRICS Green Hydrogen Summit, to ensure safe transportation and storage of the new age emission-free fuel. India had organised the two-day summit on green hydrogen involving Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, also referred to as the BRICS nations, on their initiatives around the green fuel. Ministry of Power stated that Government and industry must work together to ensure existing regulations are not an unnecessary barrier to investment. Trade will benefit from common international standards for the safety of transporting and storing large volumes of hydrogen and having appropriate certificate of origin
FAME-II Program Revised with Increased Incentives for Electric Two-Wheelers
The Department of Heavy Industries has announced partial amendments to the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase-II (FAME-II) program. Specific demand incentive for electric two-wheelers (E2W) of ?15,000 (~$205)/kWh has now been announced. Earlier, there was a uniform demand incentive of ?10000 ($137)/KWh for all vehicles. Also, the cap on incentive for E2W has been raised to 40% of the total cost of the vehicles. The cap earlier was 20% for all vehicles including E2W. Demand aggregation is identified as the key to bringing down the upfront cost of electric three-wheeler electrics, on par with the internal combustion engine vehicles for multiple user segments.
Cabinet approves Production Linked Incentive scheme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage
The Cabinet has approved the proposal of Department of Heavy Industry for implementation of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme 'National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of Fifty (50) Giga Watt Hour (GWh) of ACC and 5 GWh of "Niche" ACC with an outlay of Rs.18,100 crore (€2.1 Bn). The consumer electronics, electric vehicles, advanced electricity grids, solar rooftop etc. which are major battery consuming sectors are expected to achieve robust growth in the coming years. This dominant battery technologies will control some of the world's largest growth sectors.
Siemens Partners with Switch Mobility on E-Mobility Projects in India
Siemens Ltd has signed a MOU with Switch Mobility Automotive Ltd to jointly address need of commercial electric vehicle (EV) customers and execute E-Mobility Projects in India. Switch Mobility will bring its electric commercial vehicle industry experience while Siemens will provide the charging infrastructure technology and charging infrastructure management software solution. The two companies will collaborate on new business models such as eMobility-as-a-Service (eMaas), integrated depot energy management, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) as well as on-site / off-site renewable energy sources by leveraging batteries from commercial vehicles.
Government allots 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz band to upgrade Indian Railways security
The railways currently rely on optical fibre for their communication network but with the allocation of fresh spectrum, it will be able to use high-speed radio on a real-time basis. It will help in augmenting both communication and signalling networks of the railways. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the allotment of a 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz frequency band to the Railways for public safety and security services at stations and in trains. The spectrum allocation is in line with the Railways’ objective to provide Long Term Evolution (LTE) based mobile train radio communication on its route, a project with an estimated investment of Rs 25,000 crore (€2.9 Bn).
MoRTH/Railway ministry Notifications
-
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Issues Draft Notification, proposing to exempt Battery Operated Vehicles (BOV) from payment of fee for issue or renewal of Registration Certificate (RC). Read more>>
Railway Ministry issued following notifications:
-
Misclassification of Goods as Works in procurement. Read more>>
-
PPP-MII Order, 2017- Clarification regarding local content calculation for imported products.