Delhi: 70 of 100 EV charging bays will be at Metro stations

One hundred electric vehicle (EV) charging bays are going to be set up at 70 Metro stations and 30 other areas which get high traffic as part of Delhi’s push to make a transition away from petrol and diesel vehicles. Building bye-laws will also be amended, mandating that commercial areas with a capacity to park more than 100 cars reserve 5 per cent of their space for charging bays. Associations, malls and others will receive government subsidy for this.

On March 12, Delhi’s power department had announced that to promote Delhi’s EV policy and build infrastructure for it, 500 charging points — or 100 charging bays with the capacity to charge five vehicles each — will be set up across the city. Providing accessible public charging facilities within 3 km of distance from anywhere in Delhi is a key objective of this policy. “The tender to the company that will set up charging points will be awarded in April. The government will foot around Rs 10 crore to ensure the electricity network is in place and connected to the grid with an adequate load. The other party, as per the PPP model, will set up charging stations and recover the cost of it via the service fees they will charge. The company offering the lowest service fee will be preferred for the award,” Jasmin Shah, vice-chairperson of the Dialogue and Development Commission, told The Indian Express. The fee will be calculated on a per kilowatt-hour basis.

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The Delhi Transco Limited is the nodal agency for the project. It states in the tender document that “concessionaire shall be responsible for installation, operation and maintenance of Public Charging Stations (PCS) / Battery Swapping Facility (BSF) for the designated lease period.” Shah said various authorities were asked to pool land for the project: “We received 250 land parcels but will begin with 100. These areas are well connected and receive traffic.” Most charging stations will be for cars; though there would be slow chargers for 2 or 3 wheelers. Shah said building bye-laws will be amended soon and bodies will be given time until December to comply. For the first 30,000 charging points at homes or workplaces or other commercial areas, 100 % subsidy will be given for the purchase of charging equipment worth up to Rs 6,000 per charging point, as per the EV policy.

In August 2020, the Delhi government launched the policy with an aim to drive the transition to Battery Electric Vehicles, so that they contribute 25 % of the total new vehicle registrations by 2024. This is also part of the government’s Switch Delhi campaign launched on February 4.