Good News for Bengaluru’s EV Owners: Reliance BP to Install 225 Public Charging Stations
People who own electric vehicles in Bengaluru have good news. The city, often called the Silicon Valley of India, will soon have more public charging stations where they can charge their vehicles in public.
According to reports,Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) has chosen Reliance BP Mobility Limited to create 225 new charging stations around Bengaluru. Out of these, 150 will be located within the city, and the remaining 75 will be in the rural areas around Bengaluru.
“We had awarded the tender for setting up the charging infrastructure to Reliance BP Mobility Limited in October. They have agreed to set up 150 charging stations in Bengaluru city and 75 in Bengaluru rural. Currently, a survey is ongoing to identify the land for setting up the infrastructure. Once the survey is completed, they will sign a 10-year lease contract with the land owing agency. Reliance will call the bid for INR 2.19 per unit,”
a senior BESCOM official was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
Setting up a place to charge electric vehicles (EV) in Bengaluru costs about 35 to 40 lakh rupees. A report says that BESCOM plans to set up 1,190 EV charging spots all over Karnataka with a partner from the private sector. These spots will have both AC and DC chargers, with 1,190 of each type. Most will be on government land.
The central government has told agencies to charge at least 1 rupee per unit for charging. BESCOM picked companies that offered more than this rate. Each charging place will have 10 KW AC chargers, 7.5 KW type 2 chargers, and 60 KW CCS2 chargers, which can charge two cars at once. They will use either the 10 KW AC charger or the 7.5 KW type 2 charger, depending on the site’s needs.
BESCOM charges 7.38 rupees per unit for charging, while Reliance charges 15.99 rupees at other places. Reliance’s higher price is to make sure they earn money and recover the big costs of setting up these stations.
With 5,059 charge stations, Karnataka is now the state with the most EV charging infrastructure in the nation as of February 15, 2024. Delhi is in third place with 1,886 stations, followed by Maharashtra with 3,079 stations. These changes show that creating a strong EV charging network in India is becoming more important in order to encourage the use of electric cars and lower carbon emissions.
