MTNL to buy Reva electric cars

MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) has acquired a fleet of Reva electric cars for their technicians.

Reva i electric car

It is good that MTNL has gone the green route – the telecom services provider is one of the largest players in India’s telecom market, have announced that they will have a fleet of Reva electric cars, which will be used by their service network.

The first batch of Reva electric cars were flagged off in style by MTNL’s director, human resources SP Pachauri in New Delhi. I now look forward to a phone fault, so I can call them and complain, and wait eagerly while a couple of technicians pull into the yard in a cute Reva.

You would remember that Delhi announced some concessions for electric cars some six months back – which made the Reva, India’s only production electric car, the sole beneficiary. Looks like both MTNL and Reva capitalised on that.

Now, we all know the reva does not have much by way of range, power or safety. Safety is better now, is the word from Reva – I hope some of the testing they have been doing will be beneficial. But it should not matter much anyway – as the Reva is hardly as fast as most 100 cc motorcycles in India, it is unlikely speeds would be high and consequently, safety would be higher too. Not just that – as of now, MTNL technicians are usualy found on motorcycles, scooters or bicycles – and the Reva is definitely safer. And the roof over their heads would mean that weather would not delay them – only their own lethargy. Even there, MTNL’s service standards are improving by the day. So nothing much to complain about, really.