3 more Metro stations to get EV charging facility

The city got its first public charging facility for cars, three-wheelers and two-wheelers at Nandanam Metro station.

“People will start using e-vehicles only if the charging facilities are available. Hence, we are installing three more charging facilities at the Metro stations,” said T Ramesh, deputy general manager (technical), EESL. He said that they are tentatively charging Rs 10 per unit from the vehicle owners as the Tangedco is yet to fix tariff for it.

At Nandanam, three vehicles could be charged at a time using the slow charger. “There is one fast charger that can charge a vehicle battery to its full capacity in 40 minutes,” the official said, adding that they have planned to install three fast chargers at each of these stations. “Initially we installed only one fast charger,” the official said. After Chennai, they would set up charging station in Coimbatore, he said. CMRL said that passengers utilising the EV charger facility at Nandanam Metro station could download the “ElectreeFI” app from Google Play Store and book their slots.

In the recently released Tamil Nadu Electric Vehicle Policy 2019, the government had said that it would make efforts to set up a charging station within three square km grid of Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Madurai, Salem and Tirunelveli, and one charging station would be set up for every 25 km on both sides of national highways.