Overhaul of East and West corridors on NHEV agenda

The National Highway for Electric Vehicles (NHEV), a central government-promoted pilot for building electric highways (e-highways), is looking to upgrade 3,565 kilometers (km) of highways in the Eastern and Western corridors, NHEV Project Director Abhijeet Sinha said in an interview with Business Standard.

- PUJA DAS

The expansion plan involves 1,401 km in the West and 2,164 km in the East, targeting 13 highways. This rollout includes a fleet of 520 buses and trucks, 2,600 electric cars, 3,320 electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers, alongside 128 charging stations and 256 battery-swapping kiosks, said Sinha, who is also the national programme director for ease of doing business.

NHEV has been tasked with transforming 5,500 km of national corridors—23 highways on the Bharatmala and Sagarmala routes—into e-highways by 2027. The revised estimated expenditure for this initiative is around ₹6,618 crore, including ₹1,298 crore for the West and ₹1,998 crore for the East. NHEV has successfully run a technology pilot of 830 km on the Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Jaipur, and Chennai-Trichy corridors.