Chandigarh sees registration of 4,161 electric vehicles but no public charging station yet

The issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha on December 7. In a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, General V K Singh (retd) said there are 4,161 electric vehicles registered in Chandigarh and six charging stations are operational.

The Centre had sanctioned 48 charging stations for Chandigarh under Phase I of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) India scheme. As many as 23 fast-charging stations, of the 37 sanctioned under the FAME-II scheme, have been installed, which are yet to be functional.

A senior officer of the Chandigarh Administration in the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society said that the six charging stations, reference of which was made in the Rajya Sabha, are all private charging stations.

“We are yet to start and set up the public charging stations. There are around 23 public charging stations which are almost ready. Just that there is some issue with the lease with the agency. Once the lease issue is sorted out, the operations will begin,” the officer told The Indian Express.

In Chandigarh, at the moment, residents who own an electric vehicle have been charging their vehicles at home. Or they charge at the private charging station which costs about Rs 18 per hour.

In the first two years, 100 public charging stations to be set up

With an aim to make Chandigarh a model EV city, the Chandigarh Administration had notified the electric vehicle policy 2022 in September this year.

As per the proposal, in the first two years of the EV policy period, 100 public charging stations will be installed in the UT. Within six months, all petrol stations will have to set up charging stations. If there is no adequate space, owners will make necessary arrangements for installing the charging stations in the nearby parking area.

Chandigarh had fixed Rs 8 per unit for slow and moderate charging, Rs 10 per unit for fast charging and Rs 11 per unit for battery swapping.

The administration had assured that for the convenience of consumers, the CREST will soon develop a mobile application to provide real-time information on charging stations such as updates on time slot, type of station, load, location and tariff. However, on the ground, nothing has been done so far even as around three months are going to pass since the policy was rolled out.

Fuel-based car registrations to be reduced to 50 per cent after 4 years

Declaring itself a model EV city, the Chandigarh Administration while notifying the electric vehicle policy stated that within two years from now, they will entirely stop the registrations of petrol-based two wheelers and similarly, the registrations of personal fuel-based cars will be reduced to 50 per cent after four years from now. While setting targets for each e-vehicle category every year, the Chandigarh Administration also notified that all those buying electric vehicles from now on won’t just be getting a subsidy up to Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh on their electric vehicle but even the road tax here would be waived off for them during this policy period.

According to the five-year policy, it was also specified that minimum achievable targets have been set for each year that a specific set of percentage would be mandatory for e-vehicles to be registered. Like in case of first year which is this year (2022), 35 per cent is the achievable target for two-wheeler EV vehicles to be registered and the moment, this year 65 per cent of the fuel-based two-wheeler vehicles is completed, no more further registrations of fuel-based two-wheelers would take place here. The owner of the two-wheeler will have to get it registered elsewhere but not in Chandigarh. The total vehicle target of the particular category would be the total number of vehicles registered in that category last year.