BackEV charging and swapping stations to be identified in two weeks in Delhi
Delhi government plans to set up 200 public charging and battery-swapping stations at prominent locations in the city under its electric vehicles policy.
PremiumNew Delhi: The Delhi government has begun working on a strategy to set up 200 public charging and battery-swapping stations at prominent locations in the city under the electric vehicles (EV) policy.
Last month the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government notified the Delhi Electric Vehicles Policy, 2020 which aims to reduce pollution and generate employment opportunities in the national capital for a period of three years. The government has set a target of having 25% cars as electric vehicles by 2024. This comes as battling hazardous levels of pollution is an yearly phenomenon in Delhi. The policy received positive responses from industry experts.
All government agencies in Delhi, including the three municipal corporations, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi Development Authority, Public Works Department, and the transport department will carry out a comprehensive planning exercise in the next two weeks to identify concessional locations within their jurisdictions for the purpose of setting up public charging stations.
The decision was taken at the meeting of the charging infrastructure working group of Delhi government, which is chaired by Jasmine Shah, vice-chairperson, Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi. The committee is also looking into the rolling out of the financial incentives under the policy. Charging infrastructure is one of the key components of the policy which has various constraints, including the availability of land.
In Mint’s podcast Delhi Decoded, Shah said that this policy was overdue. He stated that issues including lack of charging infrastructure were a major bottleneck in the adoption of the policy.
“Delhi is not even in the top 10 most polluted cities in India. We as a country are battling air pollution and need to set a precedent. Delhi’s EV policy, the idea was to push on all the issues which were so far bottlenecks. The policy is ambitious in terms to what we want to achieve but responds to the challenge that is there," he said in the podcast.
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