Going ahead with its policy to incentivise making and using electric vehicles, the Karnataka government will soon introduce 11 public charging points for e-vehicles in Bengaluru.

Karnataka Energy Minister DK Shivakumar claimed that the first such charging point in the country will be ready for public use at KR Circle at the Bescom’s corporate office from February 15.

“For the first time in the country, we are coming out with the EV charging stations, which will be inaugurated on February 15. For now, there will be one such station at the Bescom headquarters near KR Circle and later 11 more such stations will be added in six months. The locations for these stations are being identified. Each vehicle can be charged in about 25 to 30 minutes,” the minister said.

This will be one of the 11 fast-track charging points planned to be installed in the city in the first phase.

However, there is still no clarity on how much these charging points will cost users.

“We have sent a proposal to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) to fix a tariff for the charging station so that members of the public can also use these facilities,” said P Rajendra Cholan, Managing Director, BESCOM.

Presently, Bengaluru has just over 6,000 electric vehicles among a total of 72 lakh vehicles. In order to increase the number, Bescom is set to replace close to a 100 of its own vehicles with EVs gradually to lead the transition.

Meanwhile, Bescom has also stated that it has surplus power and there is no reason to worry about power cuts for now.

“We have surplus power now. The State is already purchasing short-term power of 900 MW per day. Around 600 MW is coming from the Pavagada Solar Park and another 800 MW is expected in another 15 days,” Cholan said.

With this, the Bescom estimates it will have a minimum surplus of more than 2000 MW per day.

He said the power cuts which are occurring in some parts of Bengaluru are completely for technical reasons and will soon be fixed.