20 days on, Chandigarh yet to power up EV charging stations

Dushyant Singh Pundir

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Chandigarh, October 12

Even after fixing the rates more than 20 days ago, the charging stations for electric vehicles are yet to be made operational in the city.

The UT Administration had notified the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy on September 20 and fixed the charging tariff, but it will take another month to make the facility available to consumers.

A senior official said as per the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), nodal agency for the implementation of the EV policy, charging stations were ready, but had not been made operational.

He said tenders were invited to run these and rates were fixed on the basis of bids received. The firm was selected and the work would be allotted to the firm on Monday. The firm would then apply for the electricity connection to operate the existing charging stations. It would take nearly a month to commission the charging stations, he said.

For convenience of consumers, the CREST will soon develop a mobile application to provide real-time information on charging stations such as updates on time slot, type of station, load, location and tariff.

The Centre had sanctioned 48 charging stations for Chandigarh under Phase I of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) India scheme. As many as 28 fast-charging stations, of the 37 sanctioned under the FAME-II scheme, have been installed and energised, but are yet to be made functional.

The administration will further install 44 more charging stations under the Chandigarh developer mode. As many as 328 electric vehicles can be charged simultaneously across the city on slow, moderate and fast chargers.

Battery-swapping stations will also be set up along with the charging stations at 26 locations in the first phase.

In the first two years of the EV policy period, 100 public charging stations will be installed in the UT. Within six months, all petrol stations will have to set up charging stations. If there is no adequate space, owners will make necessary arrangements for installing the charging stations in the nearby parking area.

Fast-charging stations

• Parking area beside GMSH-16
• Community Hall, Sector 9
• Public parking area, Sector 24-A
• Government College, Sector 50
• Palm Garden, Sector 42
• Botanical Garden, Sarangpur
• Japanese Garden (Part 1), Sec 31
• Japanese Garden (Part 2), Sector 31
• Lake Parking, Sector 42