By Egena Sunday Ode
President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday approved the request by the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to deploy electric powered vehicles to ease transportation challenges in the region.
Managing Director of the Commission, Mohammed Alkali disclosed this after a brief meeting with the Vice President, Kassim Shettima, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the Commission is putting modalities in place to build a 5kva or 10kva solar powered grid to bridge power supply gaps.
Beyond the electric vehicles that has been modified to carry more passengers and goods, electric tricycles are also expected to be deployed in the region, according to the Managing Director.
This development is coming amid the determination of the Federal Government to stimulate investments in alternative energy sources, especially the CNG.
“We at the northeast development commission did a thorough analysis of our region, because we cover six states in Northeast Region, and looked at the comparable advantage between CNG and e-vehicles.
“And after our thorough analysis, we came to the conclusion that for the North East region the CNG could work, but e-vehicle can work better for many reasons.
“One is that our plan at the end of day is to create modular solar power units across the state which can be used to power this percentage of e-vehicles.
“We sought and got approval of the presidency for us to go ahead and come up with the framework of how we are going to deploy this e-mobility in the northeast and what kind of e-mobility, etc. And Mr. President graciously gave approval, and today we came to present to him the kind of E-vehicles we are going to introduce in the Northeast.
“There are three categories. One is the E-busses, which can carry about 40 people or passengers at a given point in time, at the minimum, and that’s it for intrastate, not interstate. And also we brought some sample of e-taxis which normally will carry three people passengers as well as the driver, and we also brought in a highly modified tricycle.”
