500 charging stations for electric cars in 3-4 years across Maharashtra

Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has proposed to set up 500 charging stations across the state. The proposal comes at a time when there are barely 2,200 electric vehicles (EVs) registered across Maharashtra. Also, for the first time, the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has finalised tariff for EVs at Rs 6 per unit for the next two years, in a recent order.

On September 17, MSEDCL authorities said that under the first stage, 50 EV charging stations will be set up by March 2019. “We will be issuing Letter of Intent for the 50 charging points within a week. Each would cost around Rs 4 lakh,” said Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, MSEDCL.

Sources said that charging stations will be set up starting from Navi Mumbai and the first major highway to get it would be the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The officials said that 6 EV charging points would be placed along the 95 km-long expressway.

In the near future, similar facility will also be provided on the Mumbai-Nagpur Communication Highway. MSEDCL officials said that 500 charging stations will be set up across the state in the next 3-4 years. The MERC claims that they have kept the rates subsidised to encourage people to buy EVs.

The rate fixed is Rs 6 per unit and Rs 70 per KvA/month. Mukesh Khullar, Member, MERC said: “The tariff for EV charging stations is ad hoc, meaning they may change in future. We have to start somewhere. So we made an estimation to arrive at this figure; the tariff can be adjusted based on how much electricity is consumed.”

Officials claim the rate fixed is close to the average cost of supply, because the demand for Evs at the moment is very less. In 2017, around 9 lakh EVs were sold across the country, which is barely 4 per cent of the total diesel and petrol vehicles sold. One of the main reasons behind low sales has been a lack of adequate charging stations.