The Greater Chennai Corporation is likely to start regulation of the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in parking lots and buildings to facilitate phased migration to sustainable transportation.
Following the directions from the Union government, the State government this week has asked the Corporation to facilitate the development of electric charging infrastructure in buildings.
According to officials, the civic body will explore the feasibility of development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure at all the public parking lots at 88 locations of the Corporation. Once the 5,000 onstreet parking slots get electric charging infrastructure, users will be able to charge their vehicles at all these locations.
However, the regulation of charges for the users of EV charging infrastructure in GCC parking lots is expected to remain a challenge. Similarly, officials are expected to facilitate the development of charging infrastructure in the multilevel parking facility in T. Nagar.
Commercial buildings are likely to be asked to improve electric vehicle charging infrastructure. At present, a few malls in the suburban areas of the city have installed the charging infrastructure, but they are inadequate.
As the share of electric vehicles is likely to touch 30% by 2030, major cities are expected to improve infrastructure for charging.
Urban planning officials said local bodies such as the Corporation may not insist on having this facility in all old residential buildings. Of the 12 lakh properties in the 15 zones of the city, most old buildings do not have adequate space to develop the facility.
The existing charging points at petrol pumps, highways and metro stations in the city are inadequate to meet the target set by the Union government. New buildings are likely to get the infrastructure with adequate parking spaces, increasing the number of accessible charging points in the city, the officials said.
New building rules are expected to be formulated for shared charging of electric vehicle users for apartments, office campuses, gated communities, malls and government buildings. The Corporation already has charging infrastructure at 35 parking locations for its fleet of garbage clearance vehicles, the officials pointed out.
