BluSmart electric cars are parked at a charging station in Gurugram, India, April 17, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh
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PRIYANSHU SINGH
The Central government-backed National Highways for Electric Vehicles (NHEV) has stopped the process of placing orders for around 2,700 electric SUVs with BluSmart, after the alleged misuse of funds by the co-founder of the all-electric ride-hailing start-up.
NHEV is an ease of doing business (EoDB) pilot that has been adopted by the Centre after successful technical trials.
On Friday, the Ethical Governance Committee (EoDB) and NHEV (Procurement Committee) met with working group members to deliberate on the issues arising out of the alleged scam by BluSmart co-founders.
The issue is serious as BluSmart is part of a critical and expansive pilot project to establish e-highways in the country.
During the meeting, NHEV (Procurement Team) said that under the current circumstances, placing an order with BluSmart poses certain risks. Besides, BluSmart has been participating in the NHEV pilots from the beginning and the company’s troubles need to be addressed urgently.
EoDB will now seek a meeting with BluSmart financiers, PFC and IREDA, to deliberate on the issues related to the acquisition of the EVs.It is suggesting that if PFC and IREDA take legal action against BluSmart, the two agencies can acquire the EVs from the cab hailing company and these EVs can be provided to NHEV to run its pilot project.
In a statement, EoDB suggested: “IREDA & PFC to rely on BluSmart’s plans to do whatever internal, rental and financial adjustment exercised by their board to come out clean (from ongoing regulatory bodies inquiries and actions on irregularities) and financially healthy to repay loans and deliver SPEDMM orders to NHEV where the nationwide expansion shall be done on recent directions of Ministry of Cooperation in various local Cooperative Taxi Service units, eventually absorbing IREDA & PFC fleets too.”
The government has tasked the NHEV with transforming 5,500 km of national highway stretches on the Bharatmala and Sagarmala routes into e-highways by 2027.
This pilot involves running 2,700 EVs, 345 luxury e-buses and 242 roadside assistance vehicles, besides establishing several hundreds of battery swapping kiosks and charging stations at a project cost of more than ₹6,500 crore.
Published on April 18, 2025
