Delhi to have 7 EV charging stations

Delhi government has identified seven sites in the capital where the first charging stations for electric vehicles will come up.

The government plans to create up to 250 charging stations within a year and around 100 by mid-2021. Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot said, “that the government is going to sign a MoU with the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), an energy service company under the Union ministry that has already installed charging stations in some parts of south Delhi.

While the Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) is the state nodal agency for EVs, which will pool government land parcels for installation of charging stations across the city, different priority categories have been decided for installing the stations. In the first priority category are land parcels belonging to the transport department and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). Work is expected to begin soon on seven DTC sites, which include depots in Dwarka Sector 2 and 8, Kalkaji and Sukhdev Vihar, bus terminals at Nehru Place and Mehrauli and DTC workshop at Okhla. Transport department has identified 630 sites till now.

An official said that apart from locating suitable sites that have adequate space to accommodate at least five EVs at a time for charging, the government also has to consider availability of power sources nearby. “We plan to create charging stations that can accommodate one slot for fast charging and four slots for slow charging of vehicles, we are also looking at locations people would require a charging station, such as workplaces or educational institutions. We are planning a scheme for colleges and other educational institutions so they can provide space,” he said. The official added that they are also working on a model where any government organisation or private enterprise providing space for charging gets an incentive. “EESL pays 70 paise per unit charged at the location to the land owning agency and we are working on a similar or better scheme,” he said.