Shimla: As per the policy of the state government to make Himachal Pradesh pollution-free, now only e-autos will run in Himachal. It has been decided to ban the operation of petrol and diesel autos.
This decision was taken in the meeting of the State Transport Authority held in Shimla. Not only this, now the new autos to be purchased in place of old autos will have to be purchased only as e-autos.
There has been a ban on the purchase of autos running on petrol and diesel. There are about 6500 auto operators in the state.
In the meeting chaired by Transport Department Director Anupam Kashyap, it was also decided that private bus operators will no longer be able to sell route permits along with buses at arbitrary prices.
Permits will have to be submitted to the department. The Transport Department will give the said permits to other operators through auction. It has been decided to form a committee to study before implementing this system.
It has been decided to register in Himachal Pradesh the passenger vehicles contracted with the factories used for transportation of factory workers in the industrial areas of the state namely Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh and give route permits as per the rules.
By doing this the government will earn GST and token tax. Till now the contracted vehicles are registered in Punjab and Haryana and are providing services in the industrial areas of the state.
To make the state pollution free, a decision has been taken to operate e-autos. It has also been decided to form a committee to study the plan to submit the permit to the department for selling buses.