NEW DELHI: In a step aimed at making the city the “electric vehicle (EV) capital of India”, power minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said Delhi government had issued the largest tender for public charging stations in the country so far.
Jain said Delhi Transco Limited, a government agency, initiated the process for setting up 100 public charging stations on Friday and all power infrastructure costs would be borne by the government.
“Under this project, Delhi government is coming up with 100 charging stations with 500 charging points and this will be ready within 12 months,” the minister said. “The majority of these sites will be at Delhi Metro stations, followed by DTC bus depots. This will ensure that you can charge your electric vehicle at any required spot across Delhi,” he added.
There will be a mandate for minimum 20% slow chargers and 10% fast chargers to cater to all kinds of electric vehicles, and battery-swapping stations will also be allowed, Jain said. “Delhi government is committed to transforming Delhi to the electric vehicle capital and we are working on it relentlessly,” he added.
On Thursday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had launched the Switch Delhi campaign with the aim of turning Delhi’s EV adoption movement into a mass movement. Delhi government had launched an ambitious EV policy in August last year with the vision that by 2024, 25% of all new vehicles in the capital should be electric ones.
Kejriwal had urged delivery fleets and large corporates to set targets to transition their entire fleet to EVs and set up charging points on their premises. “I appeal to all malls, restaurants and shopping complexes to plan and create public charging points in your parking lots,” he had said.
An official said that apart from locations where space could be available, the government was also looking at locations people would require a charging station, such as a workplace or an educational institution. “We are also planning to extend charging facilities at all parking lots managed by different civic agencies,” he said.