Government sanctions 1,576 EV charging stations under FAME Phase II.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) recently said it has sanctioned 1,576 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across 16 highways and nine expressways under Phase II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) India scheme with a budget of ₹1,000 crore.

“A budget provision of ₹1,000 crore has been earmarked for a period of five years (2019-20 to 2023-24) for the establishment of charging infrastructure under Phase II of FAME India scheme,” the MHI said in a statement.

It had already sanctioned 2,877 charging stations in 68 cities across 25 States/Union Territories (UTs) under the second phase of the scheme. It had sanctioned about 520 charging stations/infrastructure for around ₹.43 crore under Phase I.

As per the Ministry of Power guidelines, there will be at least one charging station every 25 km on both sides of the highway and also at least one charging station for long-range/heavy-duty EVs every 100 km on both sides of the highway. “For the city, at least one charging station will be set up in a grid of 3 km x 3 km,” it added.

Some of the expressways include Mumbai-Pune (10 charging stations by EESL), Ahmadabad-Vadodara (10 by EESL), Delhi Agra Yamuna (20 by EESL) Bangaluru-Chennai (30 by BEL), Agra-Lucknow (40 by REIL), Delhi-Srinagar (80 by EESL) and Delhi-Kolkata (160 by EESL), the MHI informed.

HBL