With an aim to boost the mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the Government of Delhi has announced the approval of a single window process for efficient installation of EV chargers without any delay. The innovative single-window facility, approved during a meeting of the Delhi government's Charging Infrastructure Working Group chaired by Jasmine Shah, aims to facilitate the quick expansion of charging infrastructure for EVs at various private and semi-public locations, including group housing societies, apartments, hospitals, theatres and malls in the national capital.

Under the roll-out plan, a grant of 100 per cent will be provided for the purchase of charging equipment up to the limit of Rs 6,000 per charging point. However, as per the mandate of the Delhi Electric Vehicle policy, the 100 per cent grant will be provided only for the first 30,000 charging points. Vendors will be empanelled by the power discoms for installation of slow charging standards Light EV AC and AC 001 and fast charging standard DC 001. Delhi government subsidy will be provided to the consumer based on EV tariff.

Announcing the decision, Shah said, “The Delhi govt. has approved an innovative, single window process for quick and efficient installation of EV chargers. This is in response to requests we have been receiving especially from apartment societies, RWAs, mall owners among others.”

Shah added that Delhi, the capital of India, would soon be the only city in the entire world where anybody could get an EV charger installed and enjoy government subsidy by making just a single phone call or filing an application online.

Lack of adequate number of charging stations remains a big hurdle on the way to mass adoption of EVs. Thus, the Union government of India as well as state authorities wants to leave no stone unturned to expand the network of charging facilities.

The transition from conventional internal combustion engines (ICEs) to EVs is very important from the point of view of sustainability and clean energy as India has pledged to slash carbon emissions from vehicles to help protect the environment and prevent climate change.

The roll-out plan is scheduled to be implemented across Delhi by the end of August this year. It will obviously come as a major relief to nearly 10,000 EVs currently registered in the national capital. Currently, Delhi has only 77 fully functioning EV charging stations.