Jio BP, Adani, Shell in talks to charge up highways

Adani Total Energy, Jio BP, Shell Mobility and the Aditya Birla Group are among private entities in talks with the government to set up charging stations along national highways under a new initiative to enhance electric mobility, two people aware of the development said.

- Rituraj Baruah & Subhash Narayan

Selected entities will be offered locations along national highways by the end of March to build charging infrastructure at regular intervals, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

The programme, called National Highways for EVS (NHEV), is steered by Ease of Doing Business, a technology piloting agency of the central government. It has already conducted a pilot project across 500 km, including the Delhi-Agra stretch (225 km) and the Delhi-Jaipur highway (272 km).

Abhijeet Sinha, national programme director at Ease of Doing Business, said: "Under this newly designed model, every charging station is expected to reach breakeven in 36-40 months. NHEV would introduce 20 e-buses and 200 electric cars on each highway." Sinha added that NHEV would invite fleet operators to run these vehicles.