Work underway to set up EV charging stations at 22,000 of 70,000 petrol pumps in country: Govt

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Work is underway to set up charging stations for electric vehicles at 22,000 of the 70,000 petrol pumps across the country, the government informed Rajya Sabha on Friday. Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey said the first priority would be to set up such charging stations for electric vehicles at express highways, highways and populated cities.

He also said the government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India)-II scheme has directed the ARAI in Pune, an institution working in the field of automobiles, to develop a prototype for fast charging of electric vehicles. The aim is to have it in the market by December 2022, Pandey said.

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He said work is underway on this project and he hopes that the prototype would be prepared by October or November of next year. "Our ministry along with the ministries of petroleum and power are jointly working towards implementation of FAME India. We are working towards setting up charging stations in 22,000 of the total 70,000 petrol pumps across the country and work is on in this regard," the minister informed the House.

"Our priority is to set up charging stations on express highways, highways and populated cities and later, this will be taken down to rural areas. But our priority right now is on these three fields," he said. Pandey also informed the House that work is underway to produce lithium batteries in the country to make India self-sufficient and a production linked incentive scheme (PLI) scheme of Rs 18,100 crore has been evolved.

"The RFP has been floated and there is a good response from the industry. We are moving fast towards making India self-sufficient," he said. For waste disposal, he said a technical committee of the Ministry of Environment has been finalised which is working on the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2019 to find a solution to the problem of waste management and it will submit its report soon, the minister informed.

In his written reply, Pandey also said, " Phase-II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) is being implemented for a period of five years w.e.f. April 1, 2019, with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crores. Under Phase-II of the FAME-India scheme, Rs 1000 cr is allocated for the development of charging infrastructure. "This ministry (power) has sanctioned 2,877 electric vehicle charging stations in 68 cities across 25 states/UTs and 1,576 charging stations across nine expressways and 16 highways under Phase II of FAME India Scheme," Pandey said.

According to the Ministry of Power's guidelines, there must be at least one charging station atevery 25 kms on both sides of a highway and also at least one charging station for long range and heavy duty EVs at every 100 kms on both sides of a highway. For the city at least one charging station will be set up in a grid of 3km by 3km, he also said.