The Indian Army through its 'Go-Green Initiative' has collaborated with TATA Power, India's largest integrated utility, to setup 16 charging stations for electric vehicles (EV) at various locations in Delhi Cantonment.

The inauguration of charging stations was carried out on Wednesday by Lt General Dhiraj Seth, General Officer Commanding (GOC) Delhi Area in the presence of army officials and senior executives from TATA Power and TATA Motors.

All 16 charging stations setup in Delhi Cantonment can be used both for personal and official EVs in Delhi Cantonment. The Indian Army is providing suitable facilities for setting up EV charging stations along with arranging upstream power infrastructure to energise the chargers.

Inaugurating the first EV charging station, Seth said this is a unique initial step by Indian Army and TATA Power towards implementation of Government of India's National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) and Indian Army's 'Go-Green' Initiative".

He further urged everyone to contribute towards these eco-friendly initiatives to maintain an emission free environment, a bounden duty, mankind has towards future generations.

Virendra Goyal, Head-Business Development, TATA Power, said this is a one-of-a kind collaboration between two of India's remarkable legacy organisations, one of which guarantees territorial security and the other is enhancing the nation's energy security with clean and green energy products and solutions.

“We are pleased to work with the Indian Army to set up convenient fast charging stations for EV users within the Delhi Cantonment.

 To speed up the transition to clean mobility, we will keep working with like-minded institutions to jointly develop EV charging infrastructure in line with the Government of India's National Electric Mobility Mission Plan, he said”.

To encourage consumers, TATA Power has made it easy and user friendly to access the charging stations through its EZ charge mobile app, available on all platforms.  It has a variety of features which provide a seamless EV charging experience to EV users including e-payment and location of nearest EV charging station.

The Army has decided to go in for electric vehicles, which includes sedans, buses and motorcycles, at locations designated as peace stations. 

According to a new plan, few units at peace stations will see 25 per cent light vehicles (cars), 38 percent buses and 48 percent motorcycles switch from fossil fuel to electric mode.

Defence sources informed that various factors unique to the Indian Army – employability, remote locations and operational commitments – were considered to arrive at a definite time-bound road map.