EV Policy: Chandigarh to initiate tendering process to decide charging rates

With the Chandigarh administration planning to implement the Electric Vehicles (EV) Policy in the city from April, it will soon initiate the tendering process to decide the rates of charging stations. The firm offering the lowest charging rates will set up the stations across the city, mainly in parking areas.

This was decided in a meeting held to discuss the EV policy under the chairmanship of UT adviser Dharam Pal on Thursday. “The adviser directed that rates to be paid by EV owners for charging at public spaces be determined by a tendering process. To judge the right price, a comparison with other cities where EV policy has been implemented will also be done. The revenue loss which MC will face by giving space to set up charging stations in parking areas will also be taken into consideration,” said a senior UT official. The tendering process will be completed in a span of two months.

Under the draft EV policy, which was notified on February 10, public charging infrastructure will be set up in every sector. The aim is to install 100 charging stations in Chandigarh within the first two years. To set up public charging stations, ₹5 lakh, 100% GST exemption and 100% electricity duty exemption have been proposed, while ₹6,000 will be given for private charging stations.

Also, within six months of the policy’s implementation, it will be mandatory for all petrol pumps to set up EV charging infrastructure. Building bylaws will be amended to facilitate setting up of these stations in houses and other buildings. CREST will also develop a mobile application providing real-time updates on the stations.

“EV owners can also charge their vehicles in their homes and domestic charges will be applicable for these,” said the official.

UT likely to postpone implementation date

The administration is still working on the finalising the policy and is unlikely to implement it from the earlier declared date of April 1. “There are some suggestions and other tweaks are also needed for the final policy to be ready. Even though we are trying to implement it by April 1, it is likely to be delayed by another week,” said the official.

On the draft policy, the administration had invited suggestions and also held extensive discussions with stakeholders. “The highest number of suggestions from the public are regarding the cap on the number of vehicles to get incentives and subsidies per year. People have suggested that this cap should not be there. We will not be able to accept this suggestion as budgetary allocation has to be done for these subsidies and financial incentives,” said the official.

Apart from exempting them from road tax, the policy incentivises adoption of all types of EVs. In addition to this, a special early bird incentive will also be given to vehicles purchased and registered in the first year of the policy period. Stakeholders like EV manufacturers and charging station installers have suggested setting up of a single window system to get all requisite permissions.