Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has eased its mandatory electric vehicle hiring policy for official use, permitting administrative departments to engage petrol or diesel vehicles when open tenders for electric vehicles fail to draw responsive bids.The Finance Department issued the revised guidelines through an Office Memorandum dated October 12 after several departments reported operational challenges and a shortage of suitable bids under the earlier rules. Those rules, notified in June 2026, had required all hired official vehicles to be electric from June 1 as part of efforts to cut fuel costs amid the West Asia crisis.
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