The government will set up 50 electric vehicle charging stations in major cities, in the first phase of building 500 such stations, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced on Tuesday.
Seven charging stations will be set up along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, in addition to four each in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Panvel, six in Thane, five in Nashik and 10 each in Pune and Nagpur. Mr. Fadnavis said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spearheading the National Mobility Mission, 2020, to control rising temperature and pollution. Maharashtra, too, has its own policy to encourage electrical vehicles. At a time when automobile companies are manufacturing electrical vehicles, charging stations are going to be a much-needed facility.” One vehicle takes 45 minutes to an hour to get charged at these stations.
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulation Commission (MERC) has announced subsidised tariff of ₹6 per unit and fixed price (demand charges) of ₹70 per KvA/month for the stations.
Solar pumps for farmers
The State Cabinet on Tuesday approved installation of one lakh solar agriculture pumps in the next three years, 25,000 of which will be installed in the current financial year under the Chief Minister Solar Agriculture Pump Scheme.
Of the rest, 50,000 pumps will be installed in 2019-20 and 25,000 in 2020-21. The cost for the first phase will be ₹858.75 crore, while the second phase will cost ₹1717.50 crore and the third phase ₹858.75 crore. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited will construct solar projects at 150 locations available with the company and 12 sites of the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company, with total capacity of 500 MW. In addition, solar projects with capacity of 2MW to 10 MW will be constructed in 30 districts. MERC has sanctioned projects of 235 MW in 24 tehsils, and tendering process for 1,400 MW projects is on. “The scheme is estimated to produce 3,535 MW of solar power and benefit 7.5 lakh farmers,” said Power Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
