The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) have signed a pact to set up electric vehicle charging and battery-swapping facilities on Panchayat-owned land, a move meant to give village bodies a new source of income.
The ministry and CESL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power, will explore building the stations across Gram, Block and District Panchayats in states nationwide.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) setting the framework for the collaboration was exchanged in New Delhi by Mukta Shekhar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, and Akhilesh Kumar Dixit, CEO of CESL.
The initiative aims to create steady revenue for rural local bodies while supporting climate action, cutting carbon emissions and speeding India’s shift to cleaner mobility.
The plan would take electric mobility beyond big cities into rural India. Sites would include Panchayat land along state and national highways and premises near Gram Panchayat offices, creating a widely spread network.
The arrangement lets Panchayats turn underused public assets into income. Money earned from running the stations can add to their Own Source Revenue (OSR), which they can use for local development and rural infrastructure.
Shekhar praised CESL’s work on the PM e-Bus Sewa initiative, which is supporting electric bus deployment in major cities including Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
She said the new partnership could have far-reaching implications for India’s economic, environmental and strategic priorities. She called it an important chance to change the role of Gram Panchayats in the country’s clean mobility transition.