There is good news for electric vehicle (EV) owners who park outside railway stations before boarding the trains. The Central Railway (CR), as part of pushing ‘green initiatives', will be setting up EV charging stations at 8 other locations similar to the one at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).
This will bring relief to people who can charge their EVs there as well. Some of the probable locations include outside Byculla, Parel, Dadar, Kurla, Bhandup, Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Kalyan and Panvel railway station premises.
Sources said that they want to be future-ready considering the rise in the number of EVs and the government promoting it as well. “We are looking at setting up EV charging points outside a few other railway stations as well as part of our green initiatives,” said Shalabh Goel, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway. At present, details are still being worked out in identifying locations, interested vendors and tendering processes.
Currently, the CR has installed one such EV charging point at CSMT outside platform 18 on P D’mello road side. The officials agree that the demand for this charging point is not that great, but they have made a start. The CR authorities have already made arrangement for accommodating parking space for Yulu e-bikes outside Kurla station which is used by people going to Bandra Kurla Complex.
The CR has also setup e-auto rickshaw and battery swapping point at Thane railway station. This comes at a time when the BEST Undertaking is also planning to install such EV charging points at 55 locations across the city at their bus depots and bus stations. These charging points can be used by other vehicles as well apart from their own fleet of e-buses.
A recent survey conducted by a MyGate, a community app, nearly 78 per cent of housing societies surveyed in Mumbai are keen to set up EV charging infrastructure in building in the coming years.
