September 7: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has built 51 fast-charging stations for electric vehicles with an investment of Rs 400 million.

The NEA on Wednesday inaugurated the 51 state-of-the-art fast charging stations built in main highways, bus parks and big cities of all seven provinces across the country.

The charging stations were built with the investment of the NEA and concessional loans from the Asian Development Bank and the technical support from the Norwegian government under the EV Charging Infrastructure Development Project.

According to the NEA, among the charging stations built at a cost of Rs 400 million, big buses, micro buses, trucks, pickups vans and cars can be charged in 26 stations while small and large cars can be charged in 25 of the newly built facilities.

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet and Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire jointly inaugurated the fast charging stations constructed at the Nepal Police Club at Exhibition Road, Kathmandu.

On the occasion, Minister Basnet described the operation of the 51 charging stations as an important step towards sustainable development of the country through reduction in carbon emissions and the adverse impact of climate change by means of consumption of clean energy.    

He mentioned that the government is working for policy and legal arrangements for the promotion of electric vehicles. He also said that efforts are being made to attract investors to produce electric vehicles in Nepal.

NEA executive director Kulman Ghising said the charging stations have been set up for promoting EVs. Stating that EVs are 15 to 20 times cheaper than petrol-operated vehicles, he said the use of EVs will make positive contribution to the foreign currency reserves of the country. He shared that the NEA is going to install 500 more charging stations across the country.    

Chief of ADB South Asia Energy Division, Sujata Gupta said transport is an important sector for reducing carbon emissions and stressed on construction of infrastructures that promote the use of electric vehicles.    

After charging the vehicles, the customers can pay the bill through QR code and mobile app.