Delhi CM Kejriwal announces 100 EV charging stations, one every 2 km

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday inaugurated 11 high-tech low-cost electric charging stations in different parts of the city as part of a larger project to set up 100 charging stations across the national capital in the next two months.

"Through these 11 electric charging stations, Delhi has given the world the most affordable model of its kind. Driving an EV after charging them here would be extremely cheap it would barely cost 7 paise/km for two-wheelers, 8 paise/km for three-wheelers and 33 paise/km for four-wheelers," he said.

There are 73 charging points and 12 swapping stations at these 11 charging stations and the consumers will be charged at the rate of Rs 3 per unit, Kejriwal said.

"There will be 100 charging stations with 900 charging points and 103 swapping stations in two months. Under the EV policy, we had set a target of ensuring that 25 per cent of total vehicles purchased in Delhi by 2024 are EVs. We have already achieved 10 per cent in two years," he said.

Nearly 70 per cent of these charging stations have been set up at Delhi Metro parking areas where EV users can easily park their vehicles for charging, take the Metro to their destinations, and then return home with their vehicles, the CM said.

On the sidelines, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi at a meeting on Tuesday said that they hope to put up EV charging stations every two kilometres within two years, with a focus on two and three-wheeler vehicles.

"There are more two-wheeler users than four-wheelers in Delhi. The state government is providing a subsidy of Rs 6,000 on the purchase of the electric two-wheelers, so we are trying to motivate this section of buyers to opt for e-vehicles by making charging easy for them," an NDMC official said at the meeting, according to Times of India (TOI).

NDMC will partner with Telecommunications Consultants India Limited, Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited, Energy Efficient Services Limited, Indraprastha Gas Limited, Tata Power BYPL and BRPL to accomplish the task.