Delhi govt pushing to go electric; MCDs start clearing space for charging infra

New Delhi: With the Delhi government pushing to make the Capital a hub for electric vehicles and already having issued orders to all its departments to hire only electric vehicles for hired use, civic bodies have also started gearing up to clear space for the supplementary infrastructure.

At a recent Standing Committee meeting, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation approved a proposal to install Electric Vehicle charging stations (and battery exchange spots) at every three kilometres within its jurisdiction.

This follows the Delhi government's Electric Vehicle Policy 2020 with the aim to register at least 5 lakh Electric Vehicles in the Capital by the next five years. As per the policy, EV charging stations will be set up at a 3 km interval across the city. On Tuesday, the Delhi Government had also ordered all its departments to replace their existing fleet of conventional fuel vehicles with electric vehicles, that too within six months.

While North MCD became the first civic body to start implementing these guidelines, civic bodies had started taking steps in this direction a while ago. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation had also passed a resolution in November to provide space for EV charging/battery swapping stations in return for sharing revenue. SDMC's Leader of House Narendra Chawla had said that energy operators could set up EV stations on SDMC-owned land in return for a fixed monthly payment.

As per the new EV policy, North MCD will have the highest number of EV charging stations (127), followed by East MCD (93), and then South MCD (75), bringing the total 295 EV charging stations for public use, developed collectively by the three civic bodies.

The Delhi government, in its electric vehicle policy of 2020, has also made provisions for setting up electric vehicle charging infrastructure and battery changing stations.