Bengaluru, Jan 29 (IANS): Karnataka Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar on Thursday rolled out six variants of electric vehicles (EVs) to boost rural economy through cargo transport, ferrying agriculture goods and providing civic amenities.

"The six EVs of Balan Engineering Ltd will boost rural economy by transporting farm goods, cargo, garbage and commuters, using clean energy as they are battery operated," said Shettar on the occasion.

The six EV variants are loader Vishwas, garbage vehicle Swach Rath, passenger rickshaw B5, sanitizing vehicle, fumigation vehicle and push cart - Kamala.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers D.V. Sadanada Gowda participated in the event virtually from New Delhi.

The city-based firm offers 4-year warranty on battery and motor controller for all its EVs.

The state government has given a licence to the firm to set up a production facility at Bagalkot in the state's northwest region to roll out the EVs in large numbers for meeting the demand in towns and villages across the state.

"Though we are rolling out about 400 EVs a month in our Bengaluru plant, we are shifting our operations in 6-9 months to Bagalkot where the production plant with 25,000 units per year capacity is being set up in 25 acres of land at a cost of Rs 50 crore in two phases," said Balan Engineering director N. Balakrishnan on the occasion.

The new plant at Bagalkot will create 200 direct and 300 indirect jobs initially.

"As Bagalkot is at a tri-junction from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, our plant will help in developing the area with ancillary units and component vendors," added Balakrishnan.