E-auto push: ₹200cr, 18,766 autos, big questions
Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar says a scheme to convert or replace petrol/diesel autos in Hyderabad’s CURE region with EVs has Cabinet’s nod — up to ₹1.5 lakh per auto, ₹200 crore total. The math and the paperwork will need to show up next.
The proposed scheme still awaits its government order, rules and funding details.
According to a report quoting Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, the Telangana government has proposed a ₹200 crore “Auto Rickshaw Electric Conversion Scheme” for 18,766 petrol and diesel autos operating in the Core Urban Region Economy (CURE) area, with assistance of up to ₹1.5 lakh either to retrofit with an AIS-123 approved kit or to buy a new L5M electric auto through empanelled dealers.
The minister is quoted saying the scheme aligns with Telangana Rising Vision-2047 and aims for cleaner air and more sustainable public transport in Hyderabad. The report attributes recent Cabinet approval to him and outlines a three-tier monitoring setup (a state steering committee, an implementation committee under the Transport Commissioner, and district sanction committees led by collectors), and says ₹50 crore each would come from the SC, ST, BC and Minority Welfare departments.
Two cautions for readers: no Cabinet note, GO, finance sanction, vendor/dealer list or application guidelines were located in the public domain in this research; the 18,766 target, ₹200 crore outlay and ₹1.5 lakh support figure currently rest on the minister’s on-record description as reported. And the arithmetic matters: at the full ₹1.5 lakh, the ceiling exposure for 18,766 autos is about ₹281.49 crore — higher than ₹200 crore — so either not everyone gets the max, or the design phases it. The department has not published how it bridges that gap.
Context: an earlier May report said officials were discussing retrofits for roughly 1.09 lakh CURE autos with no final decision then. The narrowed 18,766 figure now is described as eligible, validly registered petrol and diesel autos; the state’s older EV policy (2021) did carry a retrofit incentive — 15% capped at ₹15,000 for 5,000 autos — which underlines how much larger this proposal would be if and when formal orders land.
The policy direction — more EVs, fewer fumes — serves Hyderabad. Now the Congress-led state government needs to publish the GO, the rules and the numbers, not just the line; we’ve had enough of grand EV talk from Delhi and elsewhere with little for drivers to actually apply for.