The National Highway for Electric Vehicle (NHEV) Tech trial run between Delhi-Jaipur E-highway was announced during Knowledge Group’ Meet (KGM) “Tech for Circular economy” at IIT, New Delhi. 

The meet was attended by key dignitaries, Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dr. Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, Office of Principal Scientific Advisor, Govt of India, Akhilesh Srivastava, World Economic Forum & NHEV, PM Gatishakti Technocrat Abhishek Choudhry, VP – NICDC and Ashish Kundra, Principal Secretary, Govt of Delhi, Sudhendu Sinha, Advisor NITI Aayog, George Kuruvilla, MD BECIL and Board Member CPOs of India, National Program Director, Ease of Doing Business Abhijeet Sinha, and several technology related bureaucrats from Delhi State and Govt of India, NITI Aayog, ASDC, DST, Teri, BECIL, NICDC, Delhi Municipal Corporation, Tesla Power USA also joined the WGM.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Environment minister MoS Ashwini Chaubey said that “Sanskriti’ & ‘Prakriti’ (Culture & Nature) should be in alignment in all our actions for sustainable development.” 

He pointed out that India has set the target of carbon neutrality by 2070 and electric vehicles will be the game changer in India’s efforts to achieve it. Making the Delhi-Jaipur E-Highway with NHEV pilot will be the landmark initiative by Ease of Doing Business. 

He said that this unique initiative will benefit tourist and people to ‘travel clean’ on EVs who are not even EV owners and will inspire more people to buy and participate in making India surface transport green.

Atal Harit Vidyut Rashtriya Mahamarg (AHVRM) said the trial will break its own existing record of the longest EV TECH-Trial Run ever conducted in the country. Previously 210 km TECH-Trial was conducted by NHEV during the Covid year on Yamuna Expressway flagged off by late CDS Gen Bipin Rawat between Delhi & Agra. 

Former CEO NITI Aayog Sri Amitabh Kant recently visited NHEV prototype Charging station which also broke its own record of building India’s largest charging station within 30 days in Gurugram with another bigger charging station Alektrify in March 2020 this year. Now NHEV aims to achieve another milestone in the transformation of the 278 km Delhi-Jaipur highway stretch into an E-highway by early 2023. 

The trail run will bring out the accurate on-ground assessment for 24 electric buses viability and 100 plus electric cars and SUV; each EV manufacturer will get to sponsor run of 1 prototype electric vehicle in this TECH-Trial and get empaneled for fleet orders. SUVs and E-Busses participating in the TECH-Trial were also showcased at IIT to higher officials, dignitaries, ministers and technocrats. The project will be conducted on the PPP model and Delhi Research Implementation and Innovation (DRIIV) has partnered with NHEV from Delhi Cluster of Principal Scientific Advisor of Govt of India. 

Mr. Abhijeet Sinha, National Program Director, Ease of Doing Business & NHEV – Project Director said, “In the holistic Ease of Doing Business vision of our PM this program of ‘EoDB Services’ is focused to conduct commercial pilot projects, prototype, technical trials of emerging technologies; which brings accurate and realistic recommendation to apex policy body NITI Aayog and gives birth to hybrid financing models to replace traditional ones, model RFPs to compliment market potential of these emerging tech. Technocrats from various ministries today transcribed their tech driven systematic and evidence based economic reform journey

based on the Reform, Perform and Transform mantra of PM Modi.”

(WGM) with learned professors of IIT & TERI under leadership of Prof Rangan Banerjee, Director – IIT Delhi, Prof. V Ramgopal Rao, Prof. Sukumar Mishra, Prof. Sagnik Dey, Prof Dr B. K. Panigrahi, Prof Shantanu Mishra from IIT Delhi and Shri I V Rao, Visiting Senior Fellow – TERI.