As the fifth week of the “Switch Delhi” campaign concluded on Saturday, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said that with a three-pronged strategy, the Kejriwal government had taken the lead across India in installing sound charging infrastructure in Delhi for a smooth transition to electric vehicles.
As the fifth week of the “Switch Delhi” campaign concluded on Saturday, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said that with a three-pronged strategy, the Kejriwal government had taken the lead across India in installing sound charging infrastructure in Delhi for a smooth transition to electric vehicles.
The fifth week of the campaign focused on raising awareness among people about electric vehicle charging stations within the capital. “Delhi government is leaving no stone unturned to make sure a smooth transition to EVs for Delhiites. The vision of the Kejriwal government to determine a charging point at a distance of each three kilometers will increase confidence in people to form the switch to EV and pave the way for creating Delhi the electric vehicle capital of India,” Gahlot claimed.
Elaborating on the “three pillars” of the strategy to expand electric vehicle charging stations in Delhi, Gahlot said the govt had already floated a young for 100 public charging stations, with 500 charging points at prominent locations, which can be operational by December this year. This is often aside from the prevailing 72 stations already operational in Delhi, the small print of which may be viewed at ev.delhi.gov.in.
Gahlot said the Delhi government was building a mobile application to make sure that the geo-locations of all charging stations and therefore the status of chargers, whether or not they are occupied or available to be used, are often seen in real-time.
The minister also said that with all commercial and institutional buildings, like malls, shopping complexes, cinema halls, office spaces, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, etc, with a parking capacity of over 100 vehicles mandated to line aside a minimum of 5% space for EVs, alongside suitable slow chargers, the capital will have quite 10,000 chargers by December 2021. “A suitable amendment in Delhi’s building bylaws has already been initiated to enable this,” he added.
“Under the government’s EV policy, a subsidy of up to Rs 6,000 per charging point is often availed by residential and commercial complexes to line up charging points. Delhi government has taken this step to tackle range anxiety and promote faster adoption of EVs within the capital,” Gahlot said.
The third step taken by the govt is to rope in EV fleet operators to open their captive charging stations for public use. This may be a win-win proposition since it allows EV cab and rickshaw operators to urge better utilization and returns from their investment into EV charging infrastructure. This may add another 750 charging points a minimum of for public use in Delhi by June 2021. The transport minister claimed.
‘Switch Delhi’ is an eight-week mass awareness campaign by the government to sensitize Delhiites about the advantages of switching to EVs. Also, make them conscious of the incentives and infrastructure being developed under the EV policy.
The campaign aims at informing, encouraging, and motivating people to modify from polluting vehicles to zero-emission electric vehicles.
