AHMEDABAD: If you were deciding to by buying an electric vehicle this Dussehra, you may have to unplug that dream for now. The city is yet to operationalize public charging stations.
The civic body’s recent announcement of waiving vehicle tax for private electric vehicles is practically unfeasible if only a handful of charging stations serve the idea.
AMC is still installing public charging stations at three places — Navrangpura multi-level parking, Kankaria Kids City and Kankaria Gate number 2. The civic body has already received a budget from the union government for the purpose.
The Centre has sanctioned as many as 278 electric vehicle charging stations in three cities of Gujarat including Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Gandhinagar under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, India scheme phase II (FAME2). Most of these sanctioned EV charging stations are yet to be operationalized for the public.
While declaring Gujarat Electric Vehicle Policy 2021 in June this year, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani had announced a capital subsidy of 25% up to Rs 10 lakh to set up these charging stations. However, not a single station has come up in the city.
The AMC’s electric department had located many sites in the city almost a year ago but the work has not yet begun.In March this year, Prakash Javdekar, the then union minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, had given a list of charging stations set up in the country under FAME2. The list mentions that a total of 386 charging stations have come up under FAME2.
Rajasthan has set up 94 charging stations, and small states like Jharkhand has set up 24 EV charging stations. The list does not mention Gujarat. “We will shortly operationalize EV charging stations,” an AMC official said.
According to experts, giving subsidies and waving off tax for EV vehicles will make no difference if there is no infrastructure in place for charging.