Year on, electric vehicle charging stations in Chandigarh remain non-functional

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17

Even after one year, the city’s infrastructure is still not ready for the electric vehicle (EVs) push. Twentythree charging stations installed in November last year are still non-operational.

Chandigarh has reported the highest adoption of electric vehicles in the country in September this year. Of the total sales of new vehicles in the city in September, 14.95 per cent were EVs.

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

An official of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy, Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), the nodal agency for implementation of EV Policy, said a meeting with officials of the MC ended on a positive note and the charging stations were likely to be energised next week.

During a recent meeting to the General House, the MC had refused to allow installation of EV charging stations in parking lots under it.

The UT Administration had notified the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy on September 20 last year. However, the public charging facility is still not available to the consumers. The official said the charging stations were ready and these would be made operational soon.

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

The official said work on the installation of 44 more charging stations under the “Chandigarh developer mode” at various locations was underway and nearly a dozen had been installed at various places, including multilevel parking in Sector 17, parking lot at the 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.

92 guns installed in Nov last year

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

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