CHENNAI: In a second attempt to revive EV infrastructure across Chennai’s suburban railway network, the Southern Railway has introduced EV battery swapping stations at 21 railway stations in the city.
The facilities have been introduced at railway stations, including Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MG Ramachandran Central railway station, Egmore, St Thomas Mount, Velachery, Chintadripet, Thirumayilai, Mandaveli, Greenways Road, Tiruvanmiyur, Taramani, Perungudi and Washermenpet, among others.
The move comes after an earlier rollout of EV charging stations in 2023, launched in partnership with Ather Energy, which largely became defunct. Even the company’s application had stopped displaying several railway station charging points as active, while commuters had complained about non-functional chargers and a lack of maintenance at multiple stations.
To revive the initiative in the Chennai division of Southern Railway, contracts have now been awarded for the installation and operation of battery swapping stations for five years.
The railway division said the initiative is expected to generate an annual licence fee revenue of Rs 53.43 lakh. The Railways hopes that, unlike charging points, this battery swapping model allows EV users to replace discharged batteries with fully charged ones within minutes. Railway officials said the facilities would function through mobile applications operated by authorised charge point operators and require minimal space within station premises. Additional locations are also being identified for expanding the network further.