Himachal’s Sirmaur District to Get 100 EV Charging Stations

The electric vehicle industry is rising and its robust expansion in near future looks imminent for multiple reasons – policy support, capacity of industries and environmental consciousness of consumers. Hence, in order to up the adoption of EVs, the Himachal Pradesh administration will be deploying 100 electric vehicle charging stations in the Sirmaur district.

As per reports, the Deputy Commissioner of Sirmaur has directed all SDMs (sub-divisional magistrates) in Sirmaur district to identify spots for the installation of these charging stations.

Sirmaur Deputy Commissioner RK Gautam held, “All SDMs have been directed to submit a report where such charging stations would come up.”

Balance has been tried by the administration in capacity of the stations and needs. According to the directions, charging stations of 50 Kw capacity will come up on state highways and near the bus stands. Here electric vehicles can be charged between 15 minutes to one hour.

Where vehicles would take charging time between two to four hours, these charging stations will be set up in the government offices. Vehicles taking 8 to 10 hours time in charging their batteries will have stations installed in the residences. This also requires having 11 kv power lines as the charging stations are bigger in sizes.

The administration wants government vehicles to be replaced with electric ones. The Deputy Commissioner of Sirmaur has instructed the district officials to set up small charging stations in their official premises for the benefit of EV users.

Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu recently announced the government is bullish to make the state India’s first ‘Green Energy State’ by 2025.

The latest data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) says that the electric vehicle retail sales in India saw over a three-fold jump in 2021-22 fiscal. The electric two-wheeler segment saw a robust growth of five folds. The electric three-wheeler sales also jumped two fold in the previous financial year. Hence, a strong charging station network is essential to sustain and further the growth in EVs.

Himachal Pradesh is presently replacing the government and condemned vehicles by electric ones to save fuel and abate environmental pollution. The transport department of the state has already completed the replacement of old vehicles to electric vehicles.