Delhi to add 500 more EV charging points to the existing 377 by June end

Jain said the 100 public charging stations with 5 charging points each would be developed across Delhi in the next three months. "The agreements for the charging stations will be finalised by April 8 and they will be operational by June 27," he said.

Delhi to get 500 new charging points across 100 stations, mostly located in metros.

It is proposed that 71 out of the 100 sites would be at metro stations, including outer Delhi, thereby, targeting under-served areas of Delhi, too. The tender was floated by Delhi Transco Limited, the state nodal agency for setting up EV charging infrastructure in Delhi.

"Lowest service charge was a key bidding criterion. Users will be heavily incentivised because of the minus Rs 3.60 per unit service charge that was discovered during the competitive bidding process," Jain and Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) Vice-Chairperson Jasmine Shah said at a press conference.

According to Jain 12 bidders came forward for the tender and the winning bid was at the rate of minus Rs 3.60 per unit. "This means instead of charging users for the service they'll be incentivised. Charging stations in Delhi up to a load of 22kW will run at a rate of Rs 2 per unit. Usually, cities charge upwards of Rs 10 per unit for the same and even go as high as Rs 15 per unit," Jain said.

Jain said the bidding process was drafted in a private-public partnership model. "It had two distinguished areas where the government has contributed: first in providing land through different land-owning agencies; and second in providing high-side infrastructure including cabling and transmission. The private player would contribute with the smart charging stations, staff and servicing," he said.

Shah said: "This was the largest tender of its kind in India, and it doubles the EV charging infrastructure of Delhi."

At present, there are eight charging stations with 19 charging points in New Delhi, 20 stations with three points in east Delhi, one station with one point in south Delhi, four stations with 6 points in central Delhi, 20 stations with 38 points in southwest Delhi, according to a Delhi government website. Four charging stations in west Delhi have no operational charging points as yet.

These previous tenders for EV charging stations were serviced majorly by EESL. HPCL provided one charging point and BluSmart also participated. Another service provider listed by the website is REVOS, but none of their charging points is currently operational, as per the website.

To achieve the vision of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to provide an EV charging station within a 3 km range anywhere in Delhi, Shah said the Delhi government was targeting under-served areas of Delhi. "Outer Delhi will get charging stations on priority," he said.

Jain said Delhi had already emerged as the electric vehicle capital of India. "Last month, EVs contributed to more than 10 percent of the total vehicle sales in Delhi," he said.

The guiding framework for the tender was developed by the "Charging Infrastructure Working Group" of the Delhi government which had representation from the power department, transport department, all municipal corporations, and all the DISCOMs of Delhi.