Saar: The company is aiming to launch 250 EV charging stations and 1,000 battery swapping venues across 20 cities of Uttar Pradesh.
The Mumbai-based conglomerate, Essel Group, has given its subsidiaries EIL (Essel Infraprojects Ltd.) and EGML (Essel Green Mobility Ltd.) a total of Rs 1,750 crore to invest in setting-up an EV (electric vehicle) infrastructure across 20 cities in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The company said that total amount set aside for this ‘green’ project will be invested in phases to launch 250 EV charging stations and 1,000 battery swapping locations.
This announcement was made during a ceremony that was held yesterday in Lucknow, where India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the project. Apart from investing the above-mentioned areas, the company will also be investing in deploying 25,000 e-rickshaws, a move that is expected to generate 50,000 jobs in the state. The company also claims that its ‘green’ project will reduce the cost of battery charging and will bring down the running cost per km at par with CNG (compressed natural gas) or any other alternative fuel.
In a bid to make things simpler for consumers to locate the nearest battery swapping location, the company will launch digital platforms, such as mobile apps. Battery swapping options will be located at every 2 sq. km, the company claimed. The operations of this project will commence from Ghaziabad and spread to other cities like Lucknow, Agra, Noida, Varanasi and Kanpur.
The use of battery swapping locations will be mostly used by vehicles which allow the users to replace the battery. That isn’t the case with e-cars. However, the widespread EV charging stations will surely help all kind of EVs which run purely on electricity. If a robust infrastructure to support the existence of EVs becomes available, it will be easier for the government to encourage the citizens to shift from conventional vehicles to zero-pollution ones.
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India’s homegrown automakers, Tata Motors and Mahindra, recently signed MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with the government of Maharashtra to promote the e-mobility across the state. Mahindra even signed an agreement with Auroville – an experimental township established in 1968 in Tamil Nadu – to co-develop country’s first integrated sustainable mobility ecosystem.
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