With electric cars gaining popularity, India is stepping up its infrastructure to support the transition by setting up dedicated electric vehicle charging stations. While private players play a big role towards this, the government is setting ambitious plans.
However, the Karnataka government has dropped its plans for an ambitious EV charging infrastructure plan due to a lack of bidders, reports TOI. Karnataka’s capital city, Bengaluru, has been the base for multiple electric vehicles and despite EVs gaining popularity here, the government says there are no takers.
Karnataka EV charging plan — What was it?
The Karnataka government had plans to set up 2,500 electric vehicle charging stations across the state, under a public-private partnership model; however, it failed to attract bidders, forcing the government to scrap the idea. There were no takers despite almost six attempts.
There was a similar idea back in 2023–24 to set up 585 charging stations in nine districts, which also failed despite assigning the task to selected bidders in October 2023.
Enter Plan B
The government is looking at Plan B — assigning the task to the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM). The state-owned utility is now tasked to set up 100 EV chargers in Bengaluru, with BESCOM taking up the funding also, which is estimated to cost around Rs 35 crore. This was formalised through an official government order on June 16, as per reports.
Karnataka has around 5,879 EV charging stations as of March, and Bengaluru alone accounts for 4,000 charging stations. The MD of BESCOM, Shivashankar, stated in his report that, “The departments concerned did not cooperate with private agencies that received work orders to get the required land for charging stations.”
While this is a major reason the ambitious project failed, the penetration of EVs beyond Bengaluru was also a reason. That said, OEMs and private companies are scaling up their EV charging network to attract more EV buyers.
