Building Blocks Of The Electric Ecosystem: Cities, Highways Identified To Install Charging Infrastructure For EVs

The Union Power Ministry has identified nine metropolitan cities and a few high-traffic highways and expressways for setting up charging infrastructure in the country, reports Business Standard (BS).

The list of cities including the urban agglomerations of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, and Pune. These cities are some of the most densely populated regions in the country, thus providing economies of scale and decreased costs for suppliers.

To support inter-city travel using electric vehicles, the government will also incentivise setting up of charging infrastructure along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Delhi-Agra Yamuna Expressway, Delhi-Jaipur Highway, Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway, and Eastern Peripheral Expressway.

Among the other guidelines released by the Power Ministry, it is also mandated that a minimum of one station has to be installed in a 9-sq. km area and stations are required to enable online booking of charging slots

EV Motors India, a startup operating in the space, has announced plans to set up 6,500 charging stations in the country. It has also unveiled its first public EV charging outlet, PlugNgo, in Gurugram on November 2018. Tata Power will invest over Rs 70 crores to set up nearly 1000 charging stations in NCR (National Capital Region).

Also, recently Telangana’s TSERC (Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission) has fixed a tariff of Rs 6 per of unit of electricity for the charging stations installed in the state. Other states are expected to follow suit.

Also Read: ‘Charge’ Is The Key To Change In Electric Vehicle Revolution