RAJKOT: The Union ministry of power wants to develop charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs) in cities with a population of 40 lakh-plus in the first phase and the plan covers Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat. However, in Rajkot, the civic body has taken an initiative to set up EV charging infrastructure.
Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) wants to put in place the EV charging infrastructure on its premises for the public. These points will be operated by RMC employees. According to RMC data, there are 925 EVs in Rajkot, including 518 motorcycles, as on March 31.
While municipal corporations are setting up EV charging infrastructure on PPP (public-private partnership) model, RMC will set up the charging points on its own and will run them for the next two years. The charging points will be installed on six premises, including RMC buildings of central, west and east zones, Racecourse and Pradhyuman park.
The civic body plans to set up 18 wall-mounted and pole-mounted charging points for two-wheelers as well as four-wheelers. RMC is ready with the EOI (expression of interest) and is in talks with multiple agencies for setting up the points. The talks are likely to be finalised in a week.
Municipal commissioner Amit Arora said, “We are in talks with several agencies and we have asked them to give us demonstration. RMC will pay the electricity bill and we will collect the charge per unit from vehicle owners and this amount is yet to be finalised.”
According to RMC officials, they will allow a minimum three and a maximum six agencies to install the infrastructure and the agencies will come up with different technologies. These agencies will charge nothing from RMC because they will get an opportunity to market their brands through this work.
RMC will collect data on how many vehicles are coming a day, which technology is better, which technology takes how much time to charge a vehicle, and how many two-wheelers and how many four-wheelers are coming for charging, etc.
These charging stations will be connected with IOT, which means the vehicle owners would be able to know through a mobile app the locations of charging points, which point is free and if occupied then how much time it will take to be free, etc. ICLEI, a voultunery organisation, is providing technical support to RMC.
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