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The number of charging stations for electric vehicles (EV) in nine mega cities of India increased by 2.5 times in the last four months due to multiple initiatives taken by the government, the Union Ministry of Power said on Saturday.
The nine mega cities that are in focus for the development of electric vehicles infrastructure are: Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai. The aggressive efforts undertaken by the government through various implementing agencies have resulted in rapid growth in deployment of public EV charging infrastructure. There has been additional installation of 678 public EV charging stations between October 2021 to January 2022 in these 9 cities, which is about 2.5 times of the earlier numbers, during the same period, about 1.8 lacs new electric vehicles, the Union Power Ministry said in a statement. "This has exhibited greater confidence among the consumers to shift towards electric mobility. After the saturation of EV infrastructure in these mega cities, the government has plans to expand the coverage to other cities in a phased manner," it said. The availability of adequate charging infrastructure had been the key impediments for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles in India. In this regard, the Ministry of Power issued "Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles--Guidelines and Standards," describing the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders at the Central and State level for expeditious deployment of public EV charging infrastructure across the country. The Ministry of Power recently issued the revised consolidated guidelines and standards for EV charging infrastructure on January 14, 2022. The Government of India has undertaken multiple initiatives to promote the manufacturing and adoption of electric vehicles in the country. With the considerable expansion in the public EV charging infrastructure, electric vehicles have started penetrating the Indian market. The Government has made 360-degree efforts to enhance public charging infrastructure by involving private and public agencies (BEE, EESL, PGCIL, NTPC, etc.). Many private organizations have also come forward to install EV charging stations to develop a convenient charging network grid to gain consumers' confidence. Ministry of Power has planned that charging stations should be in an area of 3x3 km grid. Currently, India has a total of 1640 operational public EV chargers. (ANI)
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