The city police are about to take 226 Tata Nexon electric vehicles on lease to gradually phase out the 15-year-old diesel-powered vehicles in the force.
The cars will be leased for a period of eight years in the first phase and distributed to various units of the force such as the traffic department and the wireless section, police sources said.
A letter on September 13 from the office of deputy secretary, home and hill affairs department, which reached Lalbazar on Monday, confirmed the allotment of Rs 8.82 crore for the project to take “226 Tata Nexon Electric Small Vehicles” on lease for eight years, the sources said.
The city police a few years ago had bought some Mahindra e20 electric vehicles for restricted use, such as patrolling in the Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar areas.
The idea was to keep the pollution in the lake areas, where hundreds gather in the morning and evening for their daily walk, under control.
The new electric vehicles will have a wider use, an officer said.
At present, the city police force has more than 4,000 vehicles, including two-wheelers. Out of the 4,000-odd vehicles, a little more than 200 are more than 15 years old and will be discarded.
“Initially, the electric vehicles will be given to traffic guards and other units which usually do not run a vehicle for more than 100km a day. As they need to be recharged periodically, we have to find out which units they are best suited to serve,” said an officer at Lalbazar.
Police officers involved in the project said the idea was to save fuel and maintenance cost and reduce air and noise pollution.
“We have calculated that the average cost of electricity consumed by an electric vehicle should be between Rs 0.90 and Re 1 for every kilometre. On the other hand, the average fuel cost of a diesel or petrol-powered vehicle is around Rs 8.5 per kilometre,” said an officer of the transport department in Lalbazar.
“The average maintenance cost of the existing vehicles varies between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000 a month.... Electric cars will be cheaper in terms of maintenance, too.”
Electric vehicles come fitted with chargers. It takes around eight hours to fully recharge a battery.
The police are planning to set up kiosks at various locations for recharging the batteries of the electric vehicles.
Online lottery racket dupes jawan of Rs 34,0000
A man from Nadia district has been arrested for allegedly duping a paramilitary jawan of Rs 34,000 after lying to him that he had won an online lottery.
Parimal Dey allegedly called up the jawan posted near Sector V and told him that he had won more than Rs 1.5 crore, a police officer said.
Deb allegedly asked the jawan to share his bank account details so the money could be transferred to him and pay a processing fee of Rs 34,000 through online transfer.
“Soon after the jawan paid the money, Dey switched off his phone. The jawan later lodged a complaint,” the officer said.
