E-vehicle charging station at Vidhana Soudha launched

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday said the government will soon roll out many incentive schemes and offers encouraging people to buy electric vehicles and will also install more charging stations.

He said that the government was also having discussions on offering concessions on road tax for those using electric vehicles. He said the government was moving rapidly towards promoting electric vehicles to check the rising air pollution in the city. He added that in the coming days, the government will roll out many schemes and subsidies for those using electric vehicles.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function where he inaugurated two charging stations each for electric cars and two-wheelers at Vidhana Soudha. This is the third government electric vehicle charging station in the city. The other two are at Bangalore Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd (Bescom) head office at K R Circle and at the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission office in Vasanthnagar.

Kumaraswamy also used the platform to direct all government agencies to ensure that at least 50% of all the hired vehicles should be electric ones. This he said is essential to spread the message that the government was taking the lead in promoting and using electric vehicles.

Bescom managing director C Shikha said that currently, the Bescom office was open to the public to charge their vehicles. Talks were on with security officials to provide access to people to charge their vehicles at Vidhana Soudha also.

The number of electric vehicles is increasing in the city but locating the nearest charging station is a challenge. To address this, Maharshi B K, specialist — Charging Infrastructure, Arther, said there is an Arther Grid App which gives the location of all the charging stations and the availability of charging points. The app can be used for two and four-wheelers.

In the coming days, the company will also tie up with other electric vehicle manufacturers and charging companies to upload their data of charging stations into the Arther Grid app. Bescom is also partnering in this. So far, over a 1,000 people are using the app, which was launched in June.