In order to promote electric vehicles, the Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) in Delhi launched a guidebook for shopping malls on Friday, February 4.
As per the guidebook, the malls will be under compulsion to provide a 5 per cent quota for electric vehicles in the next six months. In collaboration with the World Resources Institute, India (WRI), the guidebook comes with important pointers to plan the space, install and manage EV charging stations in malls.
Notably, Delhi will be the first state in the country to set up EV charging stations and allow 5 per cent parking space in malls across India.
This step can help enhance the quality of the mall and give a boost to the mall's image. Jasmine Shah, DDC vice-chairperson said, "Every city in the world that has taken a huge jump in e-mobility, did so at the back of strong charging infrastructure. Besides this, we need to ensure that every place that a vehicle stops at has a charging point - be it offices, residences or malls. Such a radical shift has been envisioned in Delhi government’s EV policy that is aimed at making Delhi the EV capital of India."
Initially, the policy was announced in August 2020 to promote the use of electric vehicles and combat air pollution in the city.
Regarding the new initiative, Amit Bhatt, Executive Director, WRI said, "Apart from the availability of chargers for EVs, one of the major issues is the long charging time. Therefore, vehicle charging with other activities can be a win-win proposition and one way to do it would be during shopping. That is because an average customer spends around 90 minutes in a Delhi shopping mall. So, having an extensive EV charging infrastructure in shopping malls would help customers in charging their vehicles without wasting any additional time."
