The government of India had recently announced its short-term target of deploying as much as 6 to 7 million electric and hybrid vehicles across the country by 2020. To provide the necessary charging facilities for these EVs, the government has now started inviting proposals from entities, targeting the smart cities and other big cities at first.?
As can be understood, the move is aimed to establish a strong EV charging network across the nation. For this, the Ministry of Heavy Industries is first inviting proposals for cities having a population of more than 1 million as per the 2011 census, along with the capital cities of all the States or Union Territories. These cities will be selected in addition to the already marked smart cities. Satellite towns connected to the seven metros i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Ahmedabad are also on the list.
The Heavy Industry Ministry is aiming at a total of 1000 EV charging stations at first through an Expression of Interest (EoI). The proposals will then be evaluated under this EoI, following which, the stations will be sanctioned to the different regions.
(Representative Image: BCCL)
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Ministry also advised the power source for these charging stations. In a bid to keep the energy powering the cars completely green, the ministry is aiming at solar energy, advising that the charging stations should be connected to such 'grid-connected solar power' wherever possible.
As per the Expression of Interest (EoI), the ministry will entertain proposals submitted before August 20.?
As the wind of electric vehicles picks speed in the country, the government is doing its best to provide the support infrastructure for the clean mobility alternatives. Apart from the recent development, Niti Aayog had earlier announced that the ministry of heavy industries will soon be providing incentives for an EV charging infrastructure. In addition, in order to bring down the cost of such a setup, the government is aiming to come up with its own standards for the charging stations soon, as opposed to using the Japanese, Chinese and European.
(With inputs from PTI)