Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Thursday detailed the electric vehicle (EV) policy at a global summit and said the Delhi government has aimed to set up charging stations within every 3km distance in the city.
He also said the Delhi government lost two important years due to the Covid pandemic but it will be able to achieve the target of 25% electric vehicles among total vehicle registrations by 2024.
Delhi to have EV charging stations every 3km
The Delhi government on Friday floated a tender to set up 100 charging stations for electric vehicles across the city. The tender, which is the largest in the country for setting up charging stations, has been floated by Delhi Transco Limited (DTL), Power Minister Satyendar Jain said at a press conference. Each station will have five charging points, making it a total of 500 such points. The charging stations will be set up within a year, Jain said.
There will be a mandate for a minimum of 20% slow chargers and 10% fast chargers at these charging stations to cater to all kinds of electric vehicles. The majority of these sites will be at Metro stations and DTC bus depots, he said. Under the electric vehicle policy of the Delhi government launched in August last year, electric vehicles are targeted to comprise 25% of the total vehicle registrations in the city.
“The most important target is creating a good network of charging stations. Delhi already has more than 2,000 charging stations. Around 100 charging stations are being created. We have a target of making a charging point available in a radius of three kilometers,” the minister said during an interaction at the Delhi EV Forum organized in Delhi.
Asked what was holding back the sales of electric vehicles despite several awareness campaigns and incentives, Gahlot said a lot of people are not adopting EVs due to the range issue and the unavailability of charging stations along the highways or outside Delhi.
The Delhi government has already offered subsidies worth around Rs 100 crore on electric vehicles under its Electric Vehicle Policy launched in 2020, the highest by any state. Apart from incentives, the government has also waived road tax and registration fees for all EVs.
