Chandigarh, May 16 -- City residents looking to buy electric cars for personal use will no longer receive incentive for switching to an eco-friendly vehicle as the UT administration has announced discontinuation of the subsidy for this category. Reason: The allocated 2,000 slots for electric cars (personal) for a Rs.1.5-lakh incentive under the administration's Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy, launched in September 2022, has run out. However, citizens can still grab incentives for 4,000 electric two-wheelers and 1,000 electric commercial vehicles, including cars for non-personal use, under the remaining quota. Over 20,000 electric vehicles have been registered in the city so far and Rs.34.73 crore disbursed as incentives under the EV Policy, as of October 31, 2024, to encourage EV adoption. As part of the policy, an incentive ranging from Rs.3,000 to Rs.2 lakh was offered for up to 42,000 vehicles of different categories, including 25,000 e-cycles, 10,000 e-bikes, 2,000 e-cars (personal) and e-cars (commercial), purchased between September 20, 2022, and September 19, 2027. Now that the quota for electric cars (personal), entailing a Rs.1.5 lakh incentive, has been exhausted, new buyers will no longer be eligible for these benefits. A senior official of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), the nodal agency for implementing UT's EV policy, said a proposal had been submitted to the central government, requesting the transfer of unused quotas for e-cycles and e-commercial vehicles to electric cars. If approved, this move could offer some relief to prospective electric car buyers. The administration has encouraged the public to explore other EV options, including e-cycles and e-bikes, to take advantage of the remaining incentives, the official added. Meanwhile, EV owners in Chandigarh continue to enjoy free parking. To promote EVs, the administration has also waived registration fee and road tax for five years, while owners of vehicles running on conventional fuels have to pay both. The UT administration had launched its five-year EV Policy with the aim of gradually phasing out fuel-powered vehicle registrations to discourage the use of polluting vehicles. However, on November 23, 2023, in response to pressure from various stakeholders, then UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had lifted the cap on registration of non-electric vehicles, including two-wheelers, four-wheelers and commercial vehicles. The EV initiative is part of a broader strategy to make Chandigarh a "Model EV City", with a target of achieving one of the highest zero-emission vehicle adoption rates in India by 2027. As many as 24 EV charging stations-including nine battery swapping stations-have been made fully operational across the city....