Maharashtra to set up 500 charging stations for electric vehicles

Pune, September 21: Giving major backhand to promote e-vehicles, The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited has decided to set up 500 e-vehicles charging stations across the state in order to encourage the use of an electric vehicle.

The e-tendering process for the project is underway and the electricity board will pass the order within a week. In the first phase, a total of 50 charging stations will be set up — four each in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Panvel six in Thane, 10 each in Pune and Nagpur, and 12 along the Pune Express Highway.

Starting this ambitious project, the Amravati Road Substation at Nagpur and Paradigm Substation at Pune has installed the DC fast charging station which will start soon. The entire cost of setting up the charging station amounts to around Rs 2.5 lakhs.

These charging stations have been aimed to set up in the free and empty space of the substations of the distribution company. These will be DC charging stations which will take around 45 minutes to 1 hour to charge the vehicle completely. The tariff is fixed at the rate of Rs 6 per unit on the basis of time of day for charging vehicles.

Also, there will be a discount of Rs 1.50 on the power tariff of the e-vehicle charging station if the vehicles are charged between 10 pm and 6 am.