E-Paper
After 9 months, Chandigarh admn nod to make 23 charging stations functional
In November last year, Chandigarh administration had allotted the work for setting up charging stations at several locations in Chandigarh
Finally after nine months of waiting, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit has given nod to make 23 public charging stations in the city operational, which were installed in November last year.
Sukhwinder Singh Abrol, project director, CREST (Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society), said, “We have received the nod from the UT administrator and now will convey it to the Rajasthan- based agency who is handling the project. We are hopeful that the stations will be made functional within two weeks.
The UT administration has even fixed the rates of the charging stations and installation work on 44 stations at different locations is already underway.
Notably, the UT administration had notified its Electric Vehicle Policy on September 20 with the aim to make Chandigarh a “Model EV city” by achieving one of the highest penetration of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) among all Indian cities by the end of the policy period of five years.
In November last year, the UT administration had allotted the work for setting up charging stations at various locations across the city .
The Centre had sanctioned 48 charging stations for the city under Phase 1 of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) India scheme. Though 23 of the sanctioned stations were installed, but they remained non-functional.
Under the policy, EV owners charging their vehicles at home will pay domestic rates, while those charging at public stations will be charged ₹8 per unit for slow or medium charging, ₹10 per unit for fast charging and ₹11 per unit for battery swapping.
UT had even assured that for the convenience of EV users, CREST will soon develop a mobile application to provide real-time information about charging stations, such as updates on time slot, type of station, load, location and tariff, but nothing has been done so far.
