₹200 crore, 18,766 autos—and a ₹81 crore question
Telangana’s proposed Hyderabad EV-auto scheme offers up to ₹1.5 lakh per vehicle. The arithmetic has already arrived before the government order.
The proposed pool and the maximum per-vehicle assistance do not add up.
Government | Analysis
Telangana’s Cabinet has approved a scheme to convert or replace 18,766 eligible petrol and diesel autorickshaws in Hyderabad’s Core Urban Region Economy area, with assistance of up to ₹1.5 lakh per vehicle and a reported allocation of ₹200 crore. The scheme offers either an AIS-123-approved retrofit kit or a new, type-approved L5M electric passenger three-wheeler. [New Indian Express; Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar’s statements]
The arithmetic is less electric. Paying the maximum ₹1.5 lakh to all 18,766 autos would cost about ₹281.49 crore—₹81.49 crore more than the reported pool. Dividing ₹200 crore across all eligible vehicles gives roughly ₹1.07 lakh each. The difference may be explained by a ceiling rather than an average payout, lower retrofit costs, phased funding or fewer applicants. The reports do not say which.
A report dated August 28 says Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju issued a government order allocating the money. The GO number, date, department and operative rules have not been independently verified from an official document. The government has therefore announced the arithmetic before publishing the instructions needed to understand it. The ₹1.5 lakh promise is clear; how far ₹200 crore travels is not.