Rs 123.26 Cr Approved for Karnataka's 1,243 EV Chargers

Bengaluru, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy announced on Tuesday the approval of Karnataka's proposal to install 1,243 electric vehicle chargers with funding of Rs 123.26 crore under the PM E-DRIVE scheme. The announcement came during the inauguration of a national conference on enabling nationwide EV charging infrastructure in Bengaluru.

Kumaraswamy stated that proposals worth Rs 503.86 crore have been cleared overall for 4,874 chargers across states including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, as well as central public sector enterprises such as HPCL, IOCL and BPCL. He noted that Rs 20 crore has been released in the first phase, with assurances of full support for subsequent state proposals.

The PM E-DRIVE scheme, with a total outlay of Rs 10,900 crore, allocates Rs 2,000 crore specifically for public EV charging infrastructure to accelerate adoption of electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, buses and trucks. Incentives under the scheme target around 24.79 lakh electric two-wheelers, 3.16 lakh three-wheelers and more than 14,000 electric buses with Rs 4,391 crore in support.