Over a lakh e-rickshaws but no legal charging points in Delhi

For over one lakh e-rickshaws operating in the city, the capital has no legal charging point for these battery-operated three wheelers.

With a rampant increase in their number, the Delhi government is faced with a new challenge of dealing with the safety hazards that these vehicles pose for the drivers and passengers.

Letters and data of the Delhi government accessed by HT reveal that there are no government authorised charging point for e-rickshaws in the city and that discoms are currently allowing consumers to charge their own e-rickshaws through energy meters installed in their houses.

The government also acknowledges that many are now into ‘illegal’ e-rickshaw charging business.

According to records, only 19,548 of these vehicles have been registered till October 13, which means more than 80% of the e-rickshaws plying in the city do not have certificates of road worthiness from the Battery Rickshaw Sangh (BRS), the body authorised by the Delhi government to issue the certificates.

According to the state transport department, e-rickshaws in Delhi have crossed the one-lakh mark.

By now a situation has arrived where dozens of e-rickshaws are being charged with a single domestic connection resulting in overloading of the sanctioned electricity capacity of the meter.

The Shahdara incident on Wednesday where three people died in a fire from an e-rickshaw that was being charged is a clear example of the safety hazard caused by such non-motorised vehicles — most of which are assembled with Chinese parts in unorganised workshops.

In October, three people died due to electrocution while charging their rickshaws.

“It has been found that now gangs are minting money from e-rickshaw charging. Drivers pay R70 to 100 per day to the groups which steal power and charge vehicles in batches. Places range from houses to empty plots where live wires are extracted from the ground. The process takes place at night. By morning, all e-rickshaws are ready to go,” explained a discom official.

While the government had prepared a list of 100 manufacturers and around 90 dealers are authorised to sell these vehicles and its parts, it simply had not thought about providing charging stations to them.

An official from the transport department said, “Our task is that of registration and challans. The power department has been asked by the Delhi High Court to come up with an action plan for charging stations.”

Between July and October, the department challaned only 276 e-rickshaws and confiscated 224 others.

After the court direction, the power department had convened a meeting on April 29 this year, but nothing happened after that.

“From our side we have done everything. We directed the discoms to approach DERC to decide special tariffs for those who are providing charging points. A battery bank model was discussed where drivers would just have to swap their batteries provided by certain companies. Now, the transport department has to decide the modalities,” informed an official from the power department.

The discoms said the charging gangs do not even use commercial connections which cost R8.5 per unit, which ideally should be the case. “Even if we provide charging points, very few drivers opt for it,” a discom official said.