KATHMANDU, APRIL 14

The government has initiated the groundwork for installation of charging stations for electric vehicles across the country.

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), on Tuesday, handed over the contract for the project titled 'Supply, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning, operation and maintenance of electric vehicle charging stations' to a Chinese contractor, Jiangsu Wanbang Dehe New Energy Technology Company.

The EV charging stations will be installed at 50 locations in the seven provinces.

According to NEA, the contract for the project worth Rs 377.9 million has been signed between the authority and the contractor.

As per the agreement, the contractor company will take the responsibility of maintenance of the charging stations for five years after they are brought into operation. Every station will have chargers of 142 kW capacity and 50 KVA transfer, along with online billing system. Three vehicles will be able to charge at once in the stations.

While NEA is installing software at its data centre to handle more than 300 such charging stations, the control hub for all the 50 charging stations will be in Kathmandu. Meanwhile, digital payment gateway will be used for bill payment at the charging stations.

According to NEA, the charging stations will be installed along the highways and the city bus parks. In this course, seven stations will be installed in Kathmandu valley.

Moreover, such charging stations will be installed in Damak, Bhadrapur, Kankai, Biratnagar, Sunsari in Province 1.

Similarly, in Province 2, it will be installed in Birgunj, Simara, Chandrapur, Dhalkebar and Janakpur, Bardibas and Rajbiraj.

Meanwhile, two stations each will be installed in Malekhu, Sindhuli, Hetauda, Bharatpur, Kurintar and one station in Kavre. One station each will be installed in Nawalpur, Damauli and Syangja, while three stations will be installed in Pokhara.

Meanwhile, one station each will be set up in Nepalgunj, Bhalubang, Dang, Butwal, Bardaghat and Sunwal.

Similarly, one station each will be installed in Mahendranagar, Dhangadhi, Surkhet and Dadheldhura.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 15, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.