Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) added a fourth electric vehicle to its vehicle pool for the current fiscal on the occasion of Makara Sankranti. The airport in August last procured two EVs for its routine operations and added one more in October.
The specialty of this fourth EV is that it is an SUV which has been modified into a ‘Follow-Me’ or ‘Apron Control’ vehicle for exclusive use on the airside, giving it the distinction of being among the few airports in India to induct an EV for this express purpose. Airports provide Follow-Me vehicles for convenience, safety or combination of both and act as visual aid to guide aircraft from place to place.
MIA will procure three more EVs before the end of this fiscal to bolster its pool of green vehicles. “With the induction of this electric vehicle as a Follow-Me vehicle, the airport has completed its planned transition from fossil-fuel to EVs for FY23 and gone beyond,” an MIA spokesperson said.
“The aim was to convert 40% of fossil fuel driven vehicles to EVs during the fiscal and it has been achieved,” the spokesperson added.
MIA has also drawn up plans to set up a dedicated EV charging station on the airside to power up these vehicles that operate there. The airport has already set up an EV charging station on the landside.
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When contacted, Triton EV founder and managing director Himanshu Patel confirmed the development.