FAME II: Ministry Of Heavy Industries Sanctions Rs 800 Crore For Public Fast Charging Stations

The Union Minister of Heavy Industries, Mahendra Nath Pandey, recently announced that Under FAME India Scheme Phase II, Rs. 800 Crore has been Sanctioned to the three Oil Marketing Companies - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum & Hindustan Petroleum to commission 7,432 public fast charging stations for Electric vehicles. The Committee headed by DG BEE recommended certain changes to improve the viability of the development of public charging infrastructure.

While installing EV charging infrastructure, Charge Point Operators face the issue of unavailability of adequate land space. Considering this barrier, MHI took up the matter with Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to explore the possibility of establishing charging stations at the Retail Outlets of the Oil Marketing companies (OMCs). The OMCs have sufficient land in the premises of their outlets which can be utilized for setting up charging stations.

The OMC wise proposed installation of charging stations including upstream infrastructure is shown in the table.

The above charging capacity shall be used for charging of electric 2 wheelers, 4 wheelers, light commercial vehicles, mini buses.The installation is expected to be completed by March 2024. At present, there are about 6,586 charging stations across the country. The addition of the new 7,432 public charging stations will be a significant push to EV charging ecosystem.

The Union Minister further said, “this move will give a boost to the electric vehicle ecosystem in India and encourage more people to switch to cleaner modes of transportation. He also added that the government is committed to promoting sustainable green mobility solutions and reducing the country's carbon emissions, working towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Net Zero mission. This move will create a robust charging infrastructure network in India that is more accessible to the public."

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Among the current challenges in EV adoption is the time consumed for charging vehicles. These EV charging stations from OMCs will be of the CCS-II type with a capacity of 50 KW and above, offering efficient and fast charging for EV owners, especially for those looking for on-the-go top-up charging.