Capital charges ahead with bold electric mobility push

CABINET CLEARS EV POLICY-2026 TO BOOST ZERO-EMISSION TRANSPORT FROM JULY 1

- AIMAN FATIMA

In a major push towards clean mobility and pollution control, the Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved the Delhi Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy-2026, an ambitious roadmap that seeks to transform the national capital into India’s largest zero-emission mobility hub.

The policy, approved under the leadership of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, will come into force from July 1, 2026, after the approval of the Lieutenant Governor, and remain effective until March 31, 2030.

Announcing the decision at the Delhi Secretariat, the Chief Minister said the policy has been framed to address three key priorities, reducing pollution, building a modern transport system and providing financial benefits to citizens.

RS 7,000 CRORE GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT, RS 15,000 CRORE CITIZEN BENEFITS

The Delhi Government will invest more than Rs 7,000 crore over the next four years to implement the policy. When combined with incentives for charging infrastructure, exemptions from road tax and registration fees, and other benefits, citizens are expected to receive overall benefits worth nearly Rs 15,000 crore.

The policy allocates over Rs 1,500 crore towards purchase incentives, another Rs 1,500 crore for scrappage incentives, Rs 1,000 crore for charging infrastructure and more than Rs 3,000 crore in revenue foregone through road tax and registration fee exemptions.

“For the first time in the country, a state is implementing an EV policy backed by such a large investment and such wide-ranging incentives,” Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said.

The policy focuses exclusively on zero-emission electric vehicles, while hybrid vehicles have been kept outside its ambit. It covers electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers, N1 category goods vehicles (up to 3.5 tonnes), N2 category trucks (3.5-12 tonnes) and Gramin Sewa vehicles. Notably, the government has not imposed any cap on the number of beneficiaries eligible for incentives.