India allocates over 200 million euros for charging infrastructure

Under its PM E-Drive scheme, the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) plans to deploy about 72,000 public charging stations nationwide. It will install them along 50 national highway corridors, enabling electric cars, buses, and commercial vehicles to cover significantly longer distances.

MHI wants the new public charging stations in high-density locations, such as fuel outlets, railway stations, airports, toll plazas, and state highways. It is considering assigning the task of aggregating demand for these charging stations to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a government-owned engineering and manufacturing enterprise specialising in energy and industrial
infrastructure.

In addition to aggregating demand, BHEL’s role in the new initiative may involve developing a unified application that allows customers to access the public chargers. MHI wants this app to allow users to check the availability of chargers, book their charging slots, make payments, and track charging progress.

MHI is coordinating with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for the implementation of EV charging infrastructure under the PM E-Drive scheme. “The clean energy transition cannot succeed in silos,” said H.D. Kumaraswamy, the Union Minister for the Ministry of Heavy Industries, stressing the need for
collaborative efforts. “Ministries, public sector enterprises, and states are all aligned to deliver results on ground,” he added.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries has devised the PM E-Drive scheme to offer incentives worth 109 billion rupees (approx. 1.12 billion euros) between October 2024 and March 2026. In addition to approximately 72,000 public chargers, the scheme covers 2,881,436 electric vehicles, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, ambulances, and trucks, as well as the upgradation of testing
agencies.

pib.gov.in, heavyindustries.gov.in, heavyindustries.gov.in (PDF)