Land allocation issues delay EV charging stations in Telangana

According to REDCO officials, after identifying over 700 locations in the GHMC limits, they were able to find only 150 suitable locations to set up charging stations.

Hyderabad: The widespread adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the State has been accompanied by several challenges, including the lack of charging infrastructure. The major hurdle in setting up EV charging stations in the State, especially in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits, is the delay in allocation of land by public sector organisations.

Since the Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation (TSREDCO), a nodal agency for implementing EV infrastructure in the State, has been setting up charging stations only on public sector spaces, it has become very difficult for it to speed up the installation works as allocation of land was taking time. According to REDCO officials, after identifying over 700 locations in the GHMC limits, they were able to find only 150 suitable locations to set up charging stations.

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“Just identifying land or space is not enough. We have to see whether power connection can be provided to the charging stations or not. Even the location is very important as people should be able to access it easily,” the officials said. Moreover, the charging station should be connected to a reliable power supply, and the electrical capacity of the site should be sufficient to support the charging station’s power requirements, the officials added.

Since land and space is 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.

The REDCO has so far set up 72 charging stations of the 150 selected in the GHMC limits and the remaining 78 were expected to be completed by the end of March. Currently, about 480 charging stations are operational in the State and in the next few months, more stations will start functioning in the State, officials said.

Already, REDCO has identified 615 locations to set up EV charging stations under the public-private partnership (PPP) model and of them 124 locations have been allotted for setting up stations.

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.

The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME II) scheme inter-alia included financial support in the form of subsidy for setting up of public charging infrastructure to instill confidence among the EV users. A revenue sharing model for provision of land at promotional rates for public charging stations has also been introduced and provision has been made for providing electricity connection to Public Charging Station (PCS) within stipulated timelines.

The government has also prescribed the single part EV tariff for public charging stations, This amount cannot exceed Average Cost of Supply (ACoS) till March 31, 2025.
Meanwhile, the number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that are operating in the country has gone up to 12,146 as of February 2. According to statistics from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Maharashtra leads with 3,079 EV charging stations followed by Delhi with 1,886, while Karnataka is at the third spot with 1,041 charging stations.

The top three states are followed by Kerala (852), Tamil Nadu (643), Uttar Pradesh (582), Rajasthan (500), Telangana (480), Gujarat (476) and Madhya Pradesh (341), making up the top 10 list.