Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is going to install 51 fast charging stations within a month.
Sagar Gyawali, the charging station project manager of the NEA, said that 40 fast chargers have been installed and now 11 others will be built within a month.
The NEA had initiated the construction of a charging station before the Covid pandemic.
Due to the pandemic, the Chinese company could not come to Nepal, so they could not build a charging station. Now the construction is at the final stage.
"The NEA will bring 51 fast chargers into operation within a month," Gyawali said at a function organized by the Nepalese Association of Financial Journalists (NAFIJ), "we are aiming to complete 11 more and 62 by June 30."
He said that there will be no problem for charging on the main highway and added that it will occur only while going off the highway.
The NEA plans to install a charging station every 60 kilometers of the highway.
He further said that the goal is to build 500 charging stations in collaboration with the private sector in the upcoming fiscal budget.
Rajan Babu Shrestha, the vice president of NADA Auto Mobiles Association, said that if the NEA provides charging stations to the private sector, the operating cost will not be hiked.
"The NEA has made a policy to collect only up to 20 percent," said Shrestha, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Sipraddhi Trading Pvt. Ltd. "Like in India, charging stations should be charged up to 70 percent."
Gyawali, the assistant manager of the electricity authority, said the authority can charge up to 20 percent of the price set by the authority.
"At present, the private sector does not have charging stations. It has become difficult due to the lack of system to charge up to 20% more tariff," he said.
Due to the increase in the import of electric vehicles, there are around 60 DC fast chargers and 300 AC chargers at present.
Although the highway has a station at a distance of 100 km, it is still inadequate.
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