As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government has planned to introduce a fleet of 1,000 e-buses in the city, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said greater usage of public transport facilities will be a "major step" towards curbing air pollution. With this policy coming to force, Delhi will become the Electric Vehicle Capital of India as AAP Government on Tuesday held discussions with several experts, industry leaders in electric mobility to discuss and take the ambitious draft Delhi EV policy further to make the city pollution free.

Addressing a stakeholders' consultation on the proposed draft electric vehicles policy for Delhi, Kejriwal also reiterated his Government has the "political will" to take "tough decisions" to cut down pollution.

"The electrical vehicle policy being discussed today is a good step. And, greater usage of public transport would be a major step towards curbing air pollution. People started using Delhi Metro when it was introduced, and it is a very clean and efficient mode of transport," the Chief Minister said.

Kejrwal said, subsidy "cannot be permanent solution" and urged industries to work on research to come up with innovation to cut down cost. E-vehicles need to be affordable and charging infrastructure need to be properly made available to make this plan work, he said.

The Chief Minister said his Government has the "political will"  to take "tough decisions" to curb pollution, as it was done two years ago in introduction of Odd-Even car scheme.

"Odd-Even step was a very difficult experiment... But, people of Delhi really supported us, we were fortunate," he said.

On November 2 Delhi Government had launched an e-bus for trial, so that zero-emissions vehicles could be rolled out in the next five to six months. The Government has planned to introduce 3,000 buses, out of which 1,000 would e-buses, he said.

"And, once these 1,000 e-buses arrive, and if they turn out to be technologically and economically viable, in future, we will buy e-buses only," the chief minister said.

Kejriwal said, it is being said that the scale on which e-buses are being planned to be introduced, is "first for any city in the country".

"So, our Delhi is taking a lead. There wound several challenges, administrative, legal, charging infrastructure. We will address these issues and find solutions. The Delhi experiment will bring lessons for the whole world," he said.

Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said the AAP Government plans to float tenders for the 1,000 electric buses shortly. "Delhi Government has already made the commitment to induct 1000 fully electric buses, more than anywhere in India, and the ambitious draft Delhi EV policy is a further step to establish Delhi as the EV capital of India. The draft policy strongly supports creation of a high density charging infrastructure, which is a key enabler for rapid adoption of electric vehicles," said Kailash Gahlot.

Transport Commissioner Varsha Joshi made a brief presentation on the Government's proposed policy, as per which it targets to have 25 per cent of all new vehicle registrations to be electric by 2023 through the subsidy for such autos, rickshaws and two-wheelers among others.

The policy also recommends strengthening infrastructure to provide battery charging access within 3 km range from anywhere in Delhi while additional fees on non-electric vehicles will fund the bulk of corpus created to incentivise the adoption of electric cars.

The stakeholders meet was organised by Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD), chaired by Kejriwal, and US-based Rocky Mountains Institute. Several industry leaders and experts in electric mobility nodded in agreement about the draft Electric Vehicle Policy 2018 of the Delhi Government.