The Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) has invited proposals for deploying electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the country’s big and smart cities under the government’s FAME program.

The last date for the submission of proposals has been set for August 20, 2019.

The Expression of Interest has been issued for inviting proposals from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), municipal corporations, public sector undertakings (PSUs both state and central) and public or private entities in different states and cities.

The cities have been categorized as million-plus cities, smart cities, satellite towns connected to metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad.

Apart from these, major cities of special category states or union territories (UTs), and the capital cities of all the states or UTs not covered in the above categories have also been identified.

Initially, a total of 1,000 EV charging stations have been earmarked for the deployment of the stations through this EoI. These charging stations will be allotted to different states, cities, and entities after the evaluation of the proposals received.

A minimum of 6,000 chargers is to be installed at these 1,000 charging stations.  For achieving benefits from economies of scale, each ULB, municipal corporation must apply for a certain minimum number of EV charging stations.

The maximum demand incentive available from DHI under FAME India Phase II will be 70% for category A, 100% for category B and 50% for category C. The EoI adds that the cost of upstream electrical infrastructure, including the cost of transformer required for bringing power supply to the EV charging station, will not be covered as the cost of EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment).

Moreover, the charging stations have been encouraged to draw power from grid-connected solar PV projects as per the MNRE guidelines to ensure grid stability and green energy for electric vehicles.

Selected agency for the development of charging station must tie-up with at least one online Network Service Provider (NSP) to enable advance remote/online booking of charging slots by the EV owners. Such online information to EV owners should also include information regarding location, types, the number of chargers installed, cost of charging and available slots, etc.

All such entities are also mandatorily required to share this information with the Department of Heavy Industry for a common charging station app being developed by the government for all chargers of the country.

Incentives will be distributed as 20% after the supply order, as mobilization advance, 40% after the commissioning of charging stations, and 40% after six months of successful commercial operation of the charging stations.

Recently, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) had suggested the inclusion of the battery swapping model of charging under the FAME program that is currently under implementation across the country.

A few days ago, Vakrangee Limited, a technology-oriented company, has announced that it will establish charging infrastructure units for electric vehicles (EV) across India. The facilities will be set up at the company’s Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra centers, which are last-mile retail points of sale.

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Soumik is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Prior to joining Mercom, Soumik was a correspondent for UNI, New Delhi covering the Northeast region for seven years. He has also worked as an Asia Correspondent for Washington DC-based Hundred Reporters. He has contributed as a freelancer to several national and international digital publications with a focus on data-based investigative stories on environmental corruption, hydro power projects, energy transition and the circular economy. Soumik is an Economics graduate from Scottish Church College, Calcutta University.