New Delhi: Delhi is emerging as the electric vehicle capital of India with such vehicles accounting for 9.3 per cent of all vehicles bought in the city so far this year, which is the highest in the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said here on Wednesday.
He inaugurated electric charging stations across seven bus depots in Delhi, adding more charging points to Delhi's tally of over 2,000. The CM dedicated these charging stations to the public at an event held at the Rajghat depot from where he virtually inaugurated charging stations at the rest of the depots.
At the inauguration ceremony, the CM inspected the entire charging station facility and went ahead to charge an EV himself. Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot and DDCD Vice Chairperson Jasmine Shah were also present on the occasion besides senior officials of the government. Apart from Rajghat, new charging stations have been developed at DTC's IP Estate, Kalkaji, Nehru Place, Mehrauli, Dwarka Sector-2 and Dwarka Sector-8 bus depots.
During the event, Kejriwal said the EV policy introduced by his government in 2020 has received a huge response as the sales of EV vehicles in the last couple of years has increased immensely.
He said, "In the past two years, 60,846 electric vehicles have been purchased in Delhi. Last year, 25,809 were purchased and this year, only seven months have passed and 29,845 vehicles have been sold already. This means that there has been an increase of 115% and we're anticipating that this will further increase by the end of the year. People of Delhi have started to accept electric vehicles as a mode of transportation. Once people accept anything, cultural change sets in as they are replacing their older vehicles with electric vehicles."
He further mentioned the One Delhi App which is coming handy for the Delhiites in finding a charging station.
He continued, "We have developed the One Delhi app which will display nearby charging stations in case you need to charge your vehicle. I request every electric vehicle owner to download this App. The App also displays which charging station is fully occupied and which charging station can accommodate a user at any point of time."
At the same time, Transport Minister Shri Kailash Gahlot stated, "Under the leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi has achieved two new milestones today, first, launching of EV charging facilities at our Bus depots. Second, providing EV charging for its e-2W, e-3W and electric auto owners at a price of less than Rs 3 per unit from the slow chargers, which is the lowest available price in India as against an average price of Rs 10 per unit. The step will make EV charging more convenient and affordable for the citizens
of Delhi."
The Delhi Government has also inducted electric buses into its fleet of public transport. At present, there are more than 150 electric buses running in Delhi and the CM announced that by the end of 2023, 2,000 more electric buses will be added.