EV push in Telangana hit by lack of charging stations

Despite the repeated requests of the union Power Ministry to the States to set up EV charging stations for the benefit of EV users, the work in Telangana is going on at a slow pace.

Hyderabad: Although it has been more than three years since the Telangana Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy was drafted, the State still lacks adequate charging infrastructure.

Despite the repeated requests of the union Power Ministry to the States to set up EV charging stations for the benefit of EV users, the work in Telangana is going on at a slow pace. There are around 750 charging stations in Telangana, whereas it should be over 2000 to meet the demand of the present EV users in the State.

---

A year ago, the Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation Limited (TSREDCO) was directed by the State government to install 150 charging stations in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits, but so far only 72 have come into operation and work is going on to set up another 59. In fact, the GHMC has not shown the sites for the remaining 19 so far.

In all, Hyderabad has 195 charging stations (Govt and private) and another 19 battery swapping facilities located in different parts of the city. Last year, TGREDCO officials had announced plans to set up 3,000 EV charging stations across the State, but the way things are moving it doesn’t look like the target will be achieved. Despite the increasing number of EVs, shortage of charging stations along national and state highways has become a problem. An official said commuters were not traveling long distances as there were very few charging stations on highways and in small towns in the State. As per norms, EV charging stations must be installed every three kilometres in cities and every 25 km on highways on both sides.

TGREDCO officials say they were finding it difficult to get suitable locations for setting up new charging stations in the GHMC limits. The land parcels found earlier were not viable and easily accessible to the public, the officials said, adding that to set up a charging station about 500 square feet of land was required and despite repeated appeal to the State government and government agencies, no steps were being taken to make it available.

Since land and space was very expensive in the Greater Hyderabad limits, the public sector organisations and individuals were not ready to allocate land for setting up charging stations, sources said. According to officials, more than 80 percent of the State’s electric vehicle users charge their vehicles at home or at work and that only commercial vehicles were using charging stations most of the time.