Centre's policy for charging electric vehicles is to use green power, says Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highway, Nitin Gadkari, at the 'Question Hour' on Thursday at the Parliament, stated that the Centre's policy for developing charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is to use green power, specifically solar energy. The response was in context with the question from Jayadev Galla, Telugu Desam Party MP from Guntur, about the government's steps to ensure that clean energy is used to power all charging stations in the country. Gadkari also stated that new research and input from EV start-ups would be welcomed due to the constantly evolving charging infrastructure technology.

Mentioning an example of using clean energy for setting-up EV charging infrastructure, Gadkari stated that giving the example of making available 650 roadside amenities on the National Highway, for which work for 40 amenities has already begun. On all the highways, they are using solar power. In Gujarat and a few in Tamil Nadu, wind power will also be used to provide power to charging stations. 

Gadkari also stated that in Phase 1, within the next three years, all megacities with a population of 4 million or more as of the 2011 census, including existing expressways and highways connecting to these megacities, can be covered. Big cities, including state capitals and UT headquarters, may be covered for distributive and demonstrative effects in phase 2. Furthermore, important highways connecting each of these cities may be covered. In Phase 4, he added that EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Limited) was awarded the work of installing EV charging stations along 16 National Highway Expressways in consortium with the convergence energy services. 

National Highways India (NHI) signed an MOU recently, with EESL, in which NHI agreed to provide space, land near the toll plaza and its building for the installation of EV chargers on a revenue-sharing basis. According to Vahan on 25-03-2022, the number of electric vehicles in the country is 10,76,420, and as per Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) reports that 1,742 Public Charging Stations (PCS) are operational in the country as of 21-03-2022.

In the same scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase-II (FAME India Phase II) of the Ministry of Heavy Industries, 2,877 public EV charging stations have been approved in 68 cities.

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• Minister of Road Transport and Highway
• Nitin Gadkari
• electric vehicle
• green energy
• solar energy