Shri Jasmine Shah, Vice Chairperson of the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDCD), convened a meeting on the implementation of kerb-side charging for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Delhi on Monday and stated that the government is working on a blueprint to implement kerb-side charging for EVs on all major roads.
The initiative will begin with a pilot project of 100 kerb-side chargers distributed evenly among the three DISCOMs. The pilot will be developed by DDC, and DISCOMs will lead the installation of kerb-side chargers on PWD roadways. In Delhi, the PWD maintains 1,400 kilometres of roads and nearly 1 lakh lampposts. Following the test, the deployment will be expanded throughout the NCT of Delhi.
During the meeting, Shah said, “As part of Delhi CM Shri
Arvind Kejriwal's vision of making Delhi the EV capital of India, Delhi has already installed over 2500 EV charging points - the highest in India".
"This has happened on the back of several innovations. Similarly, Delhi will take the lead in setting up kerb-side charging facilities for EVs on all major roads. Kerb-side charging is another innovative concept that Delhi is bringing to provide 24x7 access of EV charging to 2W and 3W which have remained the priority segments for us," she added.
Kerb-side charging is a new worldwide idea in which EVs can be charged while parked on roadside kerbs using either street light lamp posts or specialised charging posts.
Officials from the Transport Department, the Public Works Department, Delhi Transco Limited (DTL), BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), and TATA Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) attended the meeting.
Shah also heads the inter-departmental working group for the accelerated roll-out of charging infrastructure in Delhi. The Delhi Government released a three-year action plan for charging and exchanging infrastructure last month, with a target of 18,000 charging stations.
A crucial approach for achieving this goal is to implement kerb-side charging, which uses Delhi's existing civic and electrical infrastructure to establish charging points.
It was determined during the meeting that kerb-side charging will make use of lamp posts and substation areas that have or are adjacent to on-street parking spots.
“The target is to have EV chargers on all major roads of Delhi. Kerb-side charging will provide convenient options for the priority segment vehicle in which are two-wheelers (2W) and three-wheelers (3W). In addition, it will play an important role for Residential colonies which lack designated parking. It can also utilize the areas of Commercial markets and Govt offices with on street parking,” according to a statement released by the commission..
It also highlighted that kerb-side charging has been successful in locations such as London and New York, where 30 to 50 percent of automobile users park on the street at night.
Over 5,500 kerb side EV chargers have been built in the UK, with London accounting for 80 percent of them. Similar pilot initiatives have been carried out in New York.
The stakeholders at the conference praised the notion. The DISCOMs will pick the route segments where this experiment may begin with the installation of 100 EV chargers.
Along with the State EV cell of the Transport Department, Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) would be the state nodal agency for implementing the whole project. The Delhi government intends to deploy over 5000 kerb-side EV chargers over the next three years.
(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)
