At a time when the government is facing an acute financial crunch, road safety funds of ₹3.70 lakh is being paid to the Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT) every year for each of the 71 electric cars that the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has taken on lease from the agency, reveals an RTI query.
This amounts to over ₹29 lakh per car over the eight-year lease period. The MVD can purchase two such cars using this amount and deploy them for rule enforcement, says Raju Vazhakkala, RTI activist, who sourced the information from the Transport department.
Already, ₹4.95 crore has been paid in the April 2021-September 2023 period as the lease amount to ANERT, since the fleet of 71 e-cars were inducted for road safety enforcement. The funds are sourced from the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA), which gets a portion of the fine amount that is collected for traffic rule violations, he says.
