Chandigarh: Soon, get your electric vehicle energised at charging stations

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 19

Finally, charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) will be made operational next month.

A senior official of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), the nodal agency for implementation of the EV Policy in UT, said a memorandum of understating (MoU) would be signed with the local municipal corporation (MC) within a few days and after that a copy of the agreement would be sent to the Electricity Department for supply of power to the already installed charging stations. All charging stations would be made operational by March, he added.

Even after a year and a half, the city’s infrastructure is still not ready for the electric vehicles. As many as 23 charging stations were installed in November 2022 and are still non-operational.

Chandigarh has reported the highest adoption of electric vehicles in the country in September last year. Of the total sales of new vehicles in the city in the month, 14.95% were EVs.

However, due to the impasse between the MC and the UT Administration over installation of charging stations in parking lots, these 23 charging stations are yet to be made operational.

During a meeting of the General House, the MC had refused to allow installation of EV charging stations in parking lots under it. However, it agreed to the proposal of the Administration later.

The UT Administration had notified the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy on September 20, 2022. However, the public charging facility is still not available to consumers.

The official said the charging stations were ready and these would be made energised as soon as the MoU was signed with the MC.

The UT installed these charging stations at nine locations across the city in November 2022. These stations will have a total of 92 charging guns and an equal number of vehicles can be charged simultaneously.

The official said the work on the installation of 44 more charging stations under the “Chandigarh developer mode” at various locations was underway and more than a dozen had been installed at various places, including multilevel parking in Sector 17, parking lot at Elante mall, parking area of the Mani Majra car bazaar, the Madhya Marg in Sector 26 and the parking lot of the Sector 44-D market.

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