MYSURU: One of the biggest barrier to electric vehicles has been the lack of charging stations, but Karnataka will soon have an answer for this. The public sector electricity supply corporations have started work on opening EV charging centres at important government offices and other places like fuel stations, tourist spots among others.
One of the ambitious announcements made in the state budget 2021-22 is the setting up of 1,000 charging centres for electric vehicles that will be established under the public –private partnership. Now, this initiative has been undertaken by the state electricity supply corporations (ESCOMs). For example, in five districts of its jurisdiction — Mysuru, Hassan, Kodagu, Mandya, and Chamarajanagar — Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd has proposed 150 such centres, while Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited, which has its jurisdictions over four districts i.e. Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikkamagalur, and Shivamogga, has proposed such centres in 170 locations. A majority of these locations are identified near government office premises.
In five districts of the CESC jurisdiction, 150 locations in government office premises have been identified for setting up these charging stations. “We have identified offices located in the urban areas,” explained Jayavibhava Swamy, MD, CESC. “We have sent the proposal to the state government in this regard,” he said.
“Along with these, we are also planning to set up another 100 EV charging centres in tourist spots like Mysuru Zoo, restaurants, amusement parks, fuel stations etc where EVs can be charged in 30 minutes,” he said.
Prashant Kumar Mishra, managing director, Mescom informed that his corporation has given the target of setting up 170 EV charging stations. “As per the government order, we identified 170 locations across the Mescom jurisdiction and sent the information to the Bescom . Bescom is the nodal agency. Now they will do a feasibility study before taking forward the proposal,” he explained.
“Besides this, we are also coordinating with the fuel stations for taking up work on EV stations on the national highways of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi,” he explained.
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The Central government proposed these centres under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) phase II.
“Of the 113 EV charging stations planned in the first phase of the initiative, 76 have been planned on public private partnership (PPP) mode, while remaining 37 stations will be set up under an agreement with the Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Limited (REIL) — a central government public sector enterprise,” IMC’s additional commissioner Sandeep Soni told TOI.