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To promote the use of electric vehicles, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is exploring the possibility of setting up battery-swapping facilities for autorickshaws as well as expanding the charging station project to include two-wheelers and three-wheelers, a top official said.
The PMC has already undertaken a project to set up charging stations for private four-wheeler electric vehicles.
“The EV charging stations are being set up in a PPP model, in which a private agency is provided with civic land to start EV charging stations, and the revenue is shared equally between the PMC and the private agency. It was decided to start 82 EV charging stations across the city, but only 43 are operational,” said Manisha Shekatkar, Chief Engineer of the PMC’s electrical department.
“We are now working on a plan to start EV charging stations across the city for two-wheeler and three-wheeler EVs, as there is no public facility for those vehicles to charge their batteries. Only if we provide EV charging stations for two-wheelers and three-wheelers will more people shift to EVs,” she said.
Of the 82 EV charging stations, 21 are supposed to be in civic gardens, 16 on ward office premises, 30 on PMC-owned land, eight in cultural halls and in the museum area, and seven in the civic hospital area.
Shekatkar said the EV charging stations installed in the city were getting a good response. “Thirty-nine EV charging stations could not be started as yet because the private agency has raised concerns that the land allotted is in remote places and that the charging stations are therefore less likely to get a good public response. Also, in some cases, the problem is of power supply as the power utility insists that a transformer be first installed in the area, which would be very expensive for the civic body,” she said.
Shekatkar said the PMC was also exploring the possibility of setting up battery-swapping facilities for autorickshaws. Swapping a depleted battery with a fully charged one will save a lot of time.
“The PMC approached battery manufacturers. It seems they are not in a position to begin a battery swapping facility, but we will continue to try to start at least one on a trial basis,” she said, adding that the use of electric vehicles was steadily increasing in the city.
The PMC provides financial assistance to those converting their petroleum-based autorickshaws to electric autorickshaws.
In 2024-25, 19,457 pure electric vehicles hit the road, in addition to 13,930 battery-operated EVs and 2,246 hybrid EVs. In total, 3,02,760 new vehicles entered Pune’s roads during the period.
