Electric three-wheelers to be introduced for women commuters, says Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Monday said especially designed electric three-wheelers would be introduced for the women travellers in Pakistan under the e-Vehicle project to make their journey safe and comfortable.

A Swedish company, in this regard, had shown interest for establishing its unit in Pakistan for which the negotiations are underway, he said in an interview with this news agency.

Fawad Chaudhry said these three-wheelers would be available in lively colours like red and yellow, liked by most of the women and would have the air-conditioner, Wifi and GPS facilities. He said women in our country were facing frequent hazards while traveling to their academic institutions, job or entrepreneur related works. These electric three-wheelers would resolve their transport issue to a larger extent, he added.

Besides this, Fawad Chaudhry said an electric vehicle value chain would be established in Pakistan under the strategic alliance between Pakistan and China based companies. The investment of 50 million dollars would be made initially in the project while manufacturing of the electric buses would begin in the second phase. “Around 25 percent of the global pollution comes from the transport sector and environmental hazards can be addressed widely through shifting on electric vehicles,” he said.

Listing another initiative of precision agriculture, the minister stated that 500 technology-based farms would be created to introduce 100 percent export-based agriculture. He said two, five and 12.5 acres farms would be given technology packages including drone, water censors, pesticides censors, packaging facility, seed selection etc. He said in our country, maximum production at even 12.5 acres land is not sufficient for our farmers to bear expenses, however, in China, farmer could get optimum production at one acre land through tech-based agricultural practices which was enough for him for the whole year.

The second part of this initiative, he mentioned, is to develop corporate livestock farms for the farmers. Pakistan Halal Authority has been created which would ensure quality of meat and Islamic way of sacrificing animal.

Fawad Chaudhry also mentioned another project of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education under which 440 schools would be converted into STEM schools in the first phase. Around 100,000 students would be imparted STEM education annually from Grade IX to Grade XII. He said Pakistan has great potential in Information Technology, however, lagging behind in hard-core science. The minister was of the view that Pakistan had a robust beginning in terms of scientific interventions since its establishment.