The Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) has so far approved 2,636 electric vehicle charging stations in 62 cities across 24 states and union territories (UTs) under the second phase of FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) program.

According to the government’s statement, nearly 106 proposals were received from the public and private entities for the deployment of approximately 7,000 EV charging stations.

After the evaluation of these proposals, the government has approved 2,636 charging stations for 24 states. Out of these, 1,633 charging stations will be fast-charging stations, and 1,003 will be slow charging stations.

With this, about 14,000 charging stations are expected to be installed, the government said in a statement.

According to the ministry, the approval letters to the selected entities will be issued in phases after ensuring the availability of land for charging stations, signing of necessary agreements or memorandum of understanding (MoU) with concerned partner organizations like city municipal corporation, DISCOMs, and oil companies.

Subsequently, each selected public entity is required to initiate the procurement process in a time-bound manner for the deployment of approved charging stations.

Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar said that in the future, at least one charging station would be available in most of the selected cities in a grid of 4 km X 4 km.

The minister also said that it would boost the confidence of users of electric vehicles and encourage the original equipment manufacturers to launch new electric vehicle models.

The Department of Heavy Industry recently invited proposals for deploying electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the country’s big and smart cities under the government’s FAME program. The cities had been categorized as million-plus cities, smart cities, satellite towns connected to metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad. Initially, a total of 1,000 EV charging stations were earmarked for the deployment through this proposal.

In October 2019, the Union Power Minister R.K. Singh approved the amendments in electric vehicle charging guidelines and specifications. The government claimed that the amended guidelines are more consumer-friendly as they incorporate several suggestions received from various stakeholders. A a phase-wise installation of appropriate network of charging infrastructure throughout the country had been envisioned in the guidelines to ensure that at least one charging station would be available in a grid of 3 km x 3 km in the cities and one such station to be set up at every 25 km on both sides of the highways.