Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government is considering Governor Arif Mohammed Khan's request for a new official vehicle to replace a decade-old Mercedes-Benz sedan.
The Governor's current official vehicle was purchased in 2011, during the tenure of MHO Farook (Sep 2011 to Jan 2012) and used by his successors Nikhil Kumar (2013-14), Sheila Dikshit (2014) and P Sathasivam (2014-19).
The Governor has requested the government to replace the current sedan with the SUV of the same luxury automobile company. In all likelihood the new model would be Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV.
The file related to this has come up before Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The new vehicle is to cost Rs 85 lakhs.
As per the VVIP travel protocol, any car which has completed 1 lakh km has to be replaced and the present Mercedes-Benz used by the Governor has covered 1.5 lakh km. It completed a distance of 1 lakh km during former Governor Sathasivam's tenure.
Though Khan had submitted a request to change the vehicle two years ago, the purchase was postponed due to the financial stress the state faced in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns.