ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Hussain Chaudhry Monday said the EGV, an electric vehicle manufacturing company, would invest four billion dollars to set up a plant for producing electrical automobiles in the country.

He said this after attending a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU), between the Ministry of Science and Technology and EGV, an international consortium.

He said the government was making concentrated efforts to transform the public transport into electric vehicles.

The electric buses would soon ply on roads of major cities like Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore in the first phase, he added.

The minister said around 20 percent of public transport vehicles would be shifted on electric facilities in near future under the National Electric Vehicle Policy (NEVP) launched in November last year.

Fawad said the communication ministry had been asked to facilitate installation of electrical charges along the motorways.

He said in the next two to three years, the entire motorway network would be furnished with the electric vehicle charging facility.

“The adoption of latest technology is imperative to meet modern-day challenges and for the development of the country,” he said.

He said the NEVP was aimed at addressing the looming threat of climate change by curbing air pollution, causing respiratory ailments in the country.

The policy was launched after a shocking ratio of vehicular emissions recorded in the air pollution across the country, he added.

He said the present government had brought electric vehicle policy to usher a new era of green development by promoting electric automobile.

The minister said the government was working on various initiatives that would empower women of the country, adding the ministry had requested to the governor of State Bank of Pakistan to offer a three wheeler electrical automobile to them.

He said the academia and industries had been connected to work jointly for the modern equipments manufacturing.