Telangana Govt moots Mobility Valley, hopes to attract Rs 50,000 cr investment over 5 years on sustainable mobility
With an aim is to accelerate the growth of sustainable mobility in the country, Telangana government on Monday unveiled what it calls India’s first new mobility-focused cluster, called Telangana Mobility Valley or TMV where it plans to attract investments of over Rs 50,000 crore and create over 4 lakh employment over the next five years.
Sharing the details of the TMV, Rao, Minister for IT E&C, MA&UD and Industries & Commerce said “Telangana Mobility Valley will create best-in-class infrastructure making Telangana the most competitive destination for both manufacturing and E R&D in India.”
Rao was speaking at first edition of Mobility Next Hyderabad Summit – part of the Hyderabad E-Mobility Week.
According to the government, TMV will attempt to help enterprises in all segments of sustainable mobility, including electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers, advanced cell chemistry, and hydrogen fuel cells, as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers and auto engineering R&D firms.
“Further, investments aggregating Rs 3,000+ Cr are in advanced stages and will be announced in the next two weeks.”
These investments will strengthen Electric 3-wheeler, Electric 2-wheeler and charging equipment manufacturing ecosystem in Telangana, he added.
The State is developing four mega clusters in and around Hyderabad- an EV Manufacturing cluster in Zaheerabad, an EV Manufacturing cluster in Seetharampur, Energy storage system (ESS) cluster in Divitipally and Innovation cluster at Yenkathala.
“Each of the clusters will be equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to reduce the cost of operations for their tenant,” the Minister informed.
The summit saw participation from government, academia, and industry executives including Kamal Bali, President and MD, Volvo Group India, Nikolaus Lang, Sr. Partner & MD, Global Leader- Global Advantage Practice, BCG, Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India & South Asia, Shrikant Sinha, CEO, Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge ‐ TASK, Suman Mishra, CEO, Mahindra Last Mile Mobility Division, Dirk Adamczyk, SVP, Engineering Solutions ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Mamatha Chamarthi, SVP Business & Product Management, Stellantis, and Dr. Amaresh Chakrabarti, Chair, Centre for Product Design & Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science, among others.
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications, and Industries & Commerce Departments, Telangana from the government side.
During the event, the State announced three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) — ATS-TUV Rheinland MoU with Telangana Government; Bosch Global Software Technologies MoU with BITS Hyderabad, and Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge’s (TASK) MoU with Shell.
Collaboration remains the key
Skoda Auto Volkswagen Group which has brought in fresh investments in the recent years has expressed its intent of bringing in more zero emission products. The Group has brought in half a dozen EVs in India already and there are more models in the offing in the future.
Talking about the future of sustainable mobility, Christian Cahn von Seelen, Executive Director, Sales, Marketing & Digital, Volkswagen Group India, said, “Sustainable mobility is achievable through the right cooperation between all stakeholders, including the supportive government policies in India. The G20 presidency of India offers a huge opportunity and there is a strong drive from various industries to address the challenges of climate change. With hard work and dedication, we can remain optimistic and see the realization of sustainable mobility in the future.”
Kamal Bali, President & MD, Volvo Group India stated that the issue of e-mobility should be seen in the context of emission reduction, congestion and safety aspects.
“It should be decoupled with EV growth,” he added, before emphasizing that this will help in reducing over $100 billion foreign exchange which India spends on petroleum imports,” said Bali
“We should move from an era of competition to an era of collaboration. It cannot be addressed by working in silos” he further added.
Volvo Group has electric buses through its joint venture with Eicher Motors and it plans to build it’s portfolio further in the future.
The transition to EVs cannot happen without a strong participation of component makers. And there has to a stronger cohesion between the two as the market pivots to EVs.
Hizmy Hassen, chief digital & supply chain officer. Apollo Tyres said,” As an industry we can have a common operating chain system ato drive down sustainability, reduce congestion and make safety a top priority”. Hassen added that the use of tools such as Internet of things (IoT) and machine learning (ML) has helped the company in reducing its emissions by at least 5% cumulatively, which is equal to reduction of roughly 2250 cars in India.