Ranjani Madhavan By Express News Service BENGALURU: Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited has recently proposed to Bangalore Electricity Supply Company to implement electric vehicle (EV) charging units at Metro stations. There are around 7,000 electric vehicles registered in Bengaluru as per BESCOM, and this project is in order to give the state’s EV policy a shot in the arm. “As part of our ongoing project to implement 112 EV charging stations by August-end, we have decided to incorporate Metro’s request to have some at the Metro stations. We will select 10 stations and conduct a joint survey to look at the feasibility,” said CK Sreenath, Deputy General Manager, Smart-grid and Electric Vehicles, BESCOM. “The factors that will play a role in deciding on the locations include space available at Metro stations, technical feasibility, accessibility and where EV users are more in number. For that, we will need the help of the transport department to know the locations of registered users to give us an approximate idea,” he added. The charging units will be installed by Delta Electronics India which won the bid for constructing 112 electric vehicle charging stations in Bengaluru. The cable, meter and supporting infrastructure will be provided by Metro. “At present, we will focus on places where electric two-wheelers can be charged as four-wheelers may not be able to fit in Metro station premises. We will have 10 AC and 1 DC charging units,” he said. DC units are faster when it comes to charging, taking 90 minutes to charge an electric car. The AC units take six hours to charge a car and 60 minutes for electric two-wheelers. “One round of survey was done by both agencies and the stations will have to be selected by BESCOM eventually. Around 17 stations which have parking spaces have been shown to them. However, in places where charging units are already nearby like near Vidhan Soudha Metro station, there is no point in having one more EV charging station, so those were dropped,” said an official from BMRCL. There are totally 22 stations which have parking in Metro Phase-1. Apart from those who own electric vehicles in the city, several Metro commuters use the Yulu Miracle electric scooter to reach Metro stations such as Indiranagar and MG Road.

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