According to data from the Central Electricity Authority, Union ministry of heavy industries and Bureau of Energy Efficiency Currently, 1.43 lakh electric vehicles are registered in Bengal with 763 public charging stations.
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Rapid growth in electric vehicle (EV) use notwithstanding, a critical gap in accessible, functional and well-publicised charging stations in Bengal threatens to derail Bengal’s transition to e-mobility, shows a recent study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). According to data from the Central Electricity Authority, Union ministry of heavy industries and Bureau of Energy Efficiency Currently, 1.43 lakh electric vehicles are registered in Bengal with 763 public charging stations. But more than 80% EV owners rely on private charging setups—either at home or at work—largely because of inadequate information on the location of charging stations and also, many of the facilities don’t function. A planned mobile application by the state power department to map all public charging points has so far failed to materialise, compounding the problem.”My car’s battery was down and I started looking for an EV charging station. When I managed to locate one, I found it was shut. At another spot, the plug point didn’t match my vehicle’s plug,” said Arindam Ghosh, an EV user. Another owner, Dipankar Mukherjee, echoed him: “Public charging stations are supposed to be like fuel pumps for conventional cars. If they don’t function or can’t be located, it’s a disaster for long drives.” To strengthen the EV infrastructure, the Union ministry of power revised its guidelines and standards in Sept 2024, ensuring a single-part EV tariff for public chargers, capped at the average cost of supply (ACoS) till March 2028. While such policy measures aimed at improving affordability and accessibility, their impact remained limited unless ground-level infrastructure was made more visible and functional, the CSE report said.Experts asserted that EVs were essential for reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and urban air pollution, particularly in megacities, such as Kolkata. Delaying EV adoption would be a missed opportunity to curb urban pollution, they pointed out. While Kolkata was seeing encouraging growth in EV numbers, especially in commercial and three-wheeler segments, the vision of a clean, electrified transport system could stall in the absence of working and accessible, experts added.”The govt must include EV charging stations in the road signage. So far, there is none. The govt should also prepare a map, pointing out the locations of charging stations. I went to a charging station in New Town, where the tariff was too high. There must be some regulation on the operators of the charging stations as well,” said Samik Dhar, an EV owner.