Complete information about electric charging stations will be available on the app, slots can be booked for charging

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), which operates under the Ministry of Heavy Industries, will soon create a digital application through which information about electric charging stations spread all over the country will be available. The ministry has informed that the application to be created by BHEL will be a unified platform for electric vehicle users where the users will be able to book slots in real time for charging their vehicle, pay, and understand the status of the charger availability.

BHEL will also coordinate with states and their ministries for assessing the proposals of states for the installation of charging stations. Under the PM e-Drive scheme, 72 thousand charging stations will be fitted at various locations to facilitate the charging of electric vehicles by next March. The Ministry of Heavy Industries has allocated a sum of Rs 2000 crores for this task. Charging stations will be installed at various metro cities, toll plazas, train stations, airports and state highways, as well as in 50 corridors of the nation's national highways.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries has also assured to provide about 4500 electric buses to Bangalore, 2000 to Hyderabad, 2800 to Delhi, 1000 to Ahmedabad, and 600 to Surat under the PM-e Drive scheme. Under the PM-e Drive, a target has been set to run 14028 electric buses with a financial outlay of Rs 10,900 crore from April 2024 to March next year.

Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy held a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Ministry of Road Transport on Wednesday to speed up the establishment of electric charging stations. The ministry believes that the task of shifting to clean fuel cannot be accomplished on its own. This is possible only with the cooperation of the Center, the state, and various ministries. Due to the lack of easy availability of charging stations, the pace of sales of electric vehicles is not increasing. The sale of two-wheelers has definitely increased, but the share of electric cars in total car sales is still negligible.