Working on establishing a proper charging infrastructure in the country, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highway Nitin Gadkari has unveiled the miniature of new EV charging station conceptualized by National Highways for EV (NHEV).
The NHEV miniature model of Charging Station is the first ever such model in the industry which has been conceptualized as comprehensive wayside amenities plaza that can reimagine and replace the existing/traditional petrol pumps and wayside amenities on the highways.
NHEV under Ease of Doing Business (EODB) plans to help convert 5000 km National Highways to E-highways through its pilot project called National Highway for EV (NHEV).
The pilot is currently conducting its concluding phase of Technical & Commercial trial with busses and long-range electric SUV on Delhi – Jaipur stretch.
This new stretch of 278 km will be added to the current 210 km TECH-trial Run between Delhi and Agra in 2021.
This also accomplishes the technical trials of total 500 km across four states UP, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan in the pilot phase.
During the inaugural address Union Minister of Road Transport & Highway Nitin Gadkari said “Since last 3-4 years I have been talking about electric vehicles and have been answering many questions like what would happen if we breakdown with an electric vehicle? However, it didn’t happen and with gradual increase in confidence on technology questions got answered itself. Now there are waiting lists for electric cars and scooters and I can say that electricity is the fuel of the future. Currently electric double-decker AC bus cost is coming Rs 60 per km, non-AC Rs 39 per kilometre and for normal electric AC bus Rs 41 per km and diesel bus is costing Rs 115 per km. If you can bring business class comfort in an electric bus with trolley on economical ticket cost to passengers, it will make public transportation more competent for users”.
“The pilot has already covered 10% stretch between Agra – Delhi – Jaipur in two phases, out of its total 5000 km highways that India aims to upgrade as E-highways in next 2 years. NHEV team is slating its plan to install pre-fabricated modules of these stations’ electrical and structural infra, soon after commissioning its pilot phase. So that new stations in the expansion phase can be speedily installed within 90 days from their allocations.” said National Program Director, Ease of Doing Business – Abhijeet Sinha, also Project Director NHEV at EODB Services.
