New Delhi: Encouraged by the solid growth of 250% in the number of Electrical Vehicle (EV) charging stations in nine mega cities in the last four months, the Central government has set a target of setting up of 22,000 EV charging stations across the country along the major highways as it aims at expanding public EV charging infrastructure across the country.
Officials said the Central government will expand the public Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure across the country in a massive way as it aims at promoting the use of Electrical Vehicles to replace the internal combustion engine based vehicles running on imported fossil fuel.
Citing the latest data, officials said due to these efforts, the number of charging stations in nine big cities has jumped by 250% in four months as 678 new public EV charging stations have been set up in the country between October last year and January this year.
These nine cities--Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai-- account for nearly 60% of the total (940 of 1,640) public EV chargers.
The Ministry of Power, which is the Nodal Ministry for the initiative, has been taking help from other Ministries such as the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
It has asked the state owned oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL to set up more than 22,000 EV charging stations across the country in prominent cities and highways.
In order to expand the charging infrastructure, the Ministry of Power in January revised guidelines and standards for EV charging infrastructure. Officials said the revised guidelines will speed up the manufacturing and adoption of Electric Vehicles in the country.
Officials said in addition to Central PSUs and organisations such as BEE, EESL, PGCIL and NTPC and several private firms have also come forward to install EV charging stations that will help in gaining the consumers’ confidence.
The Ministry of Power has planned that charging stations should be in an area of 3×3 kilometre grid.
1.8 lakh new EVs added in 4 months
Officials said in the last four months, about 1.8 lakh new electric vehicles have been sold, which shows the growing confidence of users.
After the development of EV infrastructure in the nine mega cities with four million plus population, the government plans to expand the coverage to other cities in a phased manner.
22,000 new EV chargers
EV charging stations are set to see a strong growth as resource rich state owned oil marketing companies have been involved in the process.
Public sector oil companies will set up 22,000 new EV charging stations in prominent cities and on national highways. While Indian Oil will set up 10,000 new EV chargers, BPCL will instal 7,000 and the rest of 5,000 EV charging stations will be set up by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
IOCL has already installed 439 EV charging stations and plans to instal another 2,000 EV charging stations over the next year. BPCL has installed 52 charging stations, while HPCL has installed 382 charging stations.
In addition to these oil PSUs, the department of heavy industry has also sanctioned 1,576 of public EV charging stations for 25 highways and expressways, which will be located within every 25 kilometres on either side of the road.
Read: Maharashtra: 200 EV charging stations to be set up in Aurangabad by year-end
