For the development of a robust electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the State Capital, a meeting was organized on Monday under the chairmanship of BMC Commissioner-cum-CEO Bhubaneswar Smart City and Vice-Chairman Bhubaneswar Development Authority, Sanjay Kumar Singh.

In the virtual meeting held today, distinguished market leaders in EV infrastructure in India, i.e. General Manager (EV & EV Charging Infrastructure) Energy Efficiency Services Limited N Mohan, Head (EV & Home Automation Business) Tata Power Company Limited Sandeep Bangia, senior officials from Energy and Commerce and Transport Department Government of Odisha, CEO Tata Power Central Odisha Distribution Limited M. Shenbagam, Sinha, Engineer-in-Chief cum Principal Chief Electrical Inspector Government of Odisha Santosh Das, General Manager Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited Kamaljit Das and other senior officials from stakeholders concerned were present.

The meeting discussed the EV charging stations to be built across the city to be used by the public and the public transport vehicles in near future. The priority on selection of locations would be given mainly to malls, public parking lots, hotels, residential complexes, workplaces and highways. It is learnt that the city is going to add a fleet of electric buses to its public transport network.

In the first phase, the city will have seven EV charging stations at KIIT area (one fast charger and one slow charger), SUM Hospital (one slow charger), near Esplanade Mall Rasulgarh (one fast charger and one slow charger), DN Regalia (one slow charger), Krishna Plaza CRP Square (one slow charger) will be installed and at a later stage more such facilities to be added.

It may be noted here that in the past during the last two years BSCL had tried a lot to make progress on the EV infrastructure front. However, it is the new CEO of the Smart City, who spearheaded the progress and the process could materialize now to take shape.

During the deliberation on the EV charging stations in the city, different EV vehicle infrastructures adopted by other leading cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur were discussed.