Brand new Electric vehicle imports would be the top priority by the government when it decides to allow the imports of auto vehicles, said Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
He said that globally Sri Lanka has come into high praise as it maintains a very high standard when it comes to controlling emissions. “We want to better it and this is why the President is keen to power the nation with 70% alternative energy sources by 2030 and become ‘net zero’ by 2050. India is planning to reach this target by 2070. This is also the reason why the government said ‘No’ to the construction of future coal power plants.
“While the small countries like us are doing their part in maintaining emissions it’s the big countries like China and USA that are not doing their part.”
He however said that the local transport, power generation and industries are the ‘bad’ players for Sri Lanka. “Hence now we have decided to make way for EV vehicles and as a first priority the government will import 100 low floor buses powered by Electric soon,” he disclosed. These would be run as City buses. Likewise EV vehicles too would get priority to import, he said answering a question from Daily News Business.
He also said that the government also understands the plight of Nissan Leaf car owners and a solution for their issues would be given soon. (Nissan car owners which purchased a vehicle for around Rs. 2 .5 million now need to replace their E batteries but it costs them around Rs. 1.2 million for each! There are around 4,000 such cars in Sri Lanka and due to the issue with their E battery they can travel only around 25 KM per charging circle and no secondhand E battery imports too are allowed.)
Meanwhile CEO NCPC, Eng. Samantha Kumarasena said that the second “International Conference on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy” will be held on January 19 at Waters Edge.
“NCPC organised the first International Conference on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy in January 2020 with 200+ delegates, 10+ renowned International speakers and 20+ partners. This year too a foreign and local audience will attend it.” The conference created an impact among masses by passing international knowledge and updates on several timely topics. “The conference was an eye opener and led the industries and businesses to create novel circular economy solutions for the existing problems.”
In addition the NCPC awards too would be held with it and this year the public sector too would be invited to send entries.
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