Thane: Despite the central government’s policy of promoting electric vehicles to reduce dependence on petroleum products, the Thane Municipal Corporation has not been able to find a single charging station in Thane in the last two years. Station) could not be created. On one hand, the Thane Municipal Corporation’s Electricity Department has raised its hands stating the problem of the place. At the same time, it has been learned that due to lack of coordination between the Urban Development Department and the Real Estate Department in providing the space, the charging station has not been built so far.
At the same time, the municipal corporation has given land worth crores of rupees to big developers so far, but in the last two years there is no space available for an ambitious plan like charging station.
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100 charging stations were to be set up in the city
The central government has decided to set up charging stations for such vehicles in the city by 2030. According to this decision, the then Thane Municipal Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal has decided to construct a charging station in the municipal area. According to this decision, 100 charging stations were to be set up in the city with the amount of the Municipal Corporation. Mahindra and Kinetic Green also indicated their readiness to bear the cost of setting up the station.
Deciding to provide space only
The administration rejected the proposal to set up charging stations with K funds and the municipal corporation decided to provide only space for construction of charging stations to the companies concerned. Apart from this, the Municipal Corporation will also coordinate with the financial institutions providing loans to provide electric vehicles in the city through the respective companies. An MoU was signed by the then Additional Commissioner and then CEO of Smart City Rajendra Ahiwar and representatives of the companies concerned in the presence of Jaiswal in November 2018.
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Urban Development Department could not get a single plot
The Municipal Corporation had also claimed that the project would be implemented by January 2019. Under this, a search operation was conducted to set up charging stations in different parts of the city. At present, there are long queues of vehicles at petrol pumps and CNG stations in the city, leading to traffic jams. Although, while setting up the charging station, it was to be kept in mind that efforts were also being made to avoid jams on the roads, but even after two years, the Urban Development Department has not been able to get a single plot. The electricity department said that only one site has been identified in Anand Nagar and no other charging station will be operational until another site is found. The Electricity Department has also said that the Urban Development Department has been repeatedly asked by the Electricity Department to find such plots, but in two and a half years not a single plot has been found out of 100. Which has become a topic of discussion in the city.