KATHMANDU, April 14: A contract has been awarded for the construction of five electric vehicle (EV) charging stations inside Singha Durbar, the government seat. Eastern Electrical Pvt Ltd has been awarded the contract by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to build the charging stations.

The Ministry of Energy had called for bids on December 25, 2022 to build a charging station in the main administrative center of the country for the promotion of EVs. Eastern Electrical Pvt Ltd was selected as it had made the lowest bid for the contract.

Sunil Paudel, joint secretary of the Ministry of Energy, said that it is about 60 percent less than the current rate. According to him, five charging stations are going to be installed at a cost of  eight million rupees.

The company that has been awarded the contract will have to complete the work within three months. “If the work is not done in three months, the budget will be frozen. There is no budget for next year,” he said. "The company has promised to do the job in two months."

These charging stations will be built two each at the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance and one at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Paudel, 30 kilowatt capacity chargers are going to be installed.

The charger that is going to be kept will only work for small cars. It is planned to make it possible to fully charge an electric car in 1 to 1.5 hours.

As a pilot project, the government is going to set up charging stations inside Singha Durbar for the first time. At present, inside Singha Durbar, everyone from employees to ministers has started using EVs. Paudel said that charging stations are going to be built to encourage the use of EVs. According to him, if this pilot project is successful, the plan to build more charging stations will go ahead next year.

 
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