Drag on EV push, 6 of 7 public chargers on Delhi NH lying defunct

Parveen Arora

Karnal, December 26

Only one electric vehicle (EV) charging station of the seven located at Haryana Government-run tourist complexes on the National Highway-44 is functional, forcing the owners of such vehicles to scout for private facilities.

Infra lacking

• There are 32 EV charging stations in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat districts on NH-44
• Of these, only one public and 15 private are functional; offcials say maintenance poor due to lack of demand
• Sources say with EV presence on roads rising, govt must provide matching facilities

Even private charging stations are not enough to cater to the rising demand with EV sales moving to the fast lane. Besides, some of these stations are also lying non-functional.

According to data collected by The Tribune, there are 32 government and private facilities in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat districts on the NH-44, of which one public and 15 private are functional.

In Karnal, all five points with 10 guns to charge vehicles at Oasis Tourist Resort are out of order, while three points with seven guns at Karna Lake are non-functional. “All machines at these prominent tourist sites are defunct. We have informed the higher authorities,” said Vijender Sharma, in-charge of Karna Lake Tourist Resort.

Karan Mittal, a local, said to encourage people to buy EVs, the government should increase the number of charging stations. Of six private machines in Karnal, four are functional. At Neelkanth Dhaba, there are two functional machines. On an average, two to four vehicles come daily to avail the service. Each vehicle takes around one hour for complete charging.

In Ambala, of three machines at Kingfisher Tourist Resort, only one is functional, while all three at Parakeet Tourist Resort in Pipli are out of order. Besides, there are six functional private chargers in both districts.

Rajinder Yadav, manager of Kingfisher Tourist Resort, Ambala, said, “We have one functional charger, but there isn’t much demand either. We have written to the higher authorities and the matter was taken up with the company concerned.” Partap Sharma, manager of Parakeet Tourist Resort, Pipli, said, “The charging points are non-functional, but we hardly see people approaching us to avail the facility.”

A private filling station near Shahabad also has the facility. Its manager said, “There is one charging point and people have started coming to get their vehicles charged. The response is encouraging.”

There are two EV charging stations at Ethnic India, a resort in Rai, Sonepat, and two at Skylark Resort in Panipat. The Haryana Tourism had declared these out of order three months ago. There are four functional private stations on the highway in Sonepat.

Dharamveer, an architect with the Haryana Tourism, said Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) had installed these stations under the CSR schemes. The department was in touch with it to make these machines functional. “We are also in talks with another company for installing new charging stations at all resorts on the highway,” he added.

Rohit, manager of Jhilmil Dhaba, Sonepat, said a private company had installed an EV charging station on their premises a year ago with two to four vehicles availing the facility daily.

(With inputs from Nitish Sharma and Mukesh Tandon)