BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to promote electric vehicles (EVs) adoption in Odisha, the Ministry of Heavy Industries has sanctioned 18 EV charging stations in Bhubaneswar and 164 stations along the Chennai-Kolkata National Highway.
This is part of 2,877 charging stations in 68 cities across 25 states/UTs and 1,576 along 16 highways and nine expressways under Phase-II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of hybrid and Electric vehicle (FAME) India scheme.
As per the Ministry of Power guidelines, at least one charging station at every 25 km on both sides of the highway and one charging station for long range/heavy duty EVs at every 100 km on both sides of the highway will be set up.
Sources said only Bhubaneswar city has been included for this phase and other cities, including Cuttack, Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur, will be added in the next phases. For the Capital city, at least one charging station will be set up in a grid of nine sq km.
Of the 164 charging stations along NH, 120 will be set up between Chennai and Bhubaneswar and the rest 44 between Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.
A budget provision of Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked for a period of five years for establishment of charging infrastructure under Phase-II of the FAME India Scheme.
Odisha government has already introduced its EV Policy with an objective to achieve adoption of 20 per cent (pc) electric vehicles in all vehicle registrations by 2025. People buying two-wheeler will get an incentive of 15 pc of the value of the vehicle subject to a maximum of Rs 5,000 while three-wheeler buyers will get an incentive of 15 pc up to a maximum of Rs 10,000.
Similarly, people purchasing four-wheeler will get an incentive up to Rs 50,000. Electric bus owners will be provided an incentive of 10 pc up to Rs 4 lakh and Rs 30,000 for transport vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Commerce and Transport department has asked the State Transport Authority to develop a portal to monitor sale and registration of EVs and transfer the purchase/interest subsidy to the bank account of beneficiaries.
The State government has placed Rs 5 crore under the EV Fund for transfer to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. “Since people are in a dilemma as to how and when such incentives will be made available to them, the STA has been asked to complete the process and make the portal online so that the EV buyers can be benefitted,” said a Transport department official.
The Finance department has also been asked to issue notification/circular for granting interest free loans to government employees intending to purchase EVs under the EV Policy.