Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has announced plans to establish 20,000 public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the state over the next five years through the public-private partnership (PPP) model to encourage the adoption of electric mobility.
The government has allocated nearly ₹50 crore for the project in the current financial year. Presenting the state’s first budget, Finance Minister N. Marie Wilson earmarked ₹15,828 crore for the energy sector, The New Indian Express reported.
In addition, ₹5 crore has been set aside to provide subsidies to Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) for installing EV charging facilities in residential apartment complexes.
A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Green Energy Corporation Limited (TNGECL) said the corporation has started identifying suitable locations for the charging stations. These include government offices, public places, and sites along state and national highways in major cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchy.
The official said tenders will be invited from private companies once the locations are finalised. With about seven months remaining in the current financial year, the government aims to install around 1,000 charging stations during the first phase of the project.
Resident Welfare Associations welcomed the subsidy scheme but pointed out that many apartment complexes, particularly in Chennai, do not have enough space to install dedicated EV charging facilities.
Geetha Ganesh, secretary of the AGS Colony Residents Welfare Association, said many EV owners currently charge their vehicles using domestic electricity connections because of space constraints. She said the subsidy would mainly benefit larger gated communities and urged the government to extend financial support to other residential layouts where EV users face similar challenges.
E. Natarajan, state secretary of the Bharathiya Electricity Engineers Association, said Tamil Nadu still trails states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in public EV charging infrastructure.
He noted that the budget did not specify the role of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) as the nodal agency, ownership of the charging stations, the process for selecting private operators, site planning or charging tariffs.
Natarajan also highlighted the need to strengthen the state’s power distribution network. He said 20,000 charging stations could add between 600 MW and 1,200 MW of connected electrical load, depending on the capacity of each station, making upgrades to the existing power infrastructure necessary.
