E-Paper
Charging infra slows speed of e-vehicle growth
Authorities are promoting electric vehicles as a major mode of public and private transport, but the city is lacking public charging infrastructure
PUNE While the authorities are promoting electric vehicles as a major mode of public and private transport, but city is lacking public charging infrastructure.
One of the major reasons cited is that the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) is unable to meet the demand.
Srinivas Kandul, head, PMC e-vehicle department, said, “The city is seeing a constant rise in e-vehicles on roads. Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations have taken a lot of initiatives to encourage citizens to switch from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric. However, the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is poor.”
“I can speak only for public vehicles. We have hired 40 electric cars for PMC fleet. The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd’s fleet has 500 e-buses. One major problem is that we are not getting sufficient supply from MSEDCL. The discom is unable to meet the power demand at our four locations. They have asked us to install own transformer for more supply,” Kandul said.
The official said that the civic body plans to set up e-charging stations at 83 locations. “We have planned charging stations at parking lots, gardens and near auditoriums, besides setting it up at our municipal buildings,” he said.
Siddharth Shirole, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) said, “We have given priority to e-buses. Pune is among has the cities with highest number of e vehicles in the country.”
One of the officers from MSEDCL on condition of anonymity said, “We cannot say on record that we are unable to meet the demand. But it is true that we face issues. The power consumption is increasing in the city. Now, due to e-vehicles, consumption and demand has risen even during non-peak hours. Our infrastructure cannot meet the rising demand. Our main problem is land required to set up sub-stations and transformers. The authorities should take steps to make it mandatory for builders to allocate sufficient land for setting up sub-stations and transformers on their reality projects.”
PMC had floated tenders twice for erecting e-charging stations, but it faced objection from elected representatives as the land was to be handed over to contractors.
One of the PMPML officers said, “There are issues at our end also. Our buses are parked at different locations and charging stations are located at another spots. Charging points at all depots will benefit the transport utility. Overall, commuters are happy with electric bus facility.”
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that PMPML should switch its entire fleet to electric.
