India's first electric highway to charge EV while driving Science and Technology Delhi-Mumbai Highway

INDIA'S FIRST ELECTRIC HIGHWAY TO CHARGE EV WHILE DRIVING  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

If everything goes as per the plan, India might soon get its first e-highway on Delhi-Mumbai Highway. As per the sources in the knowhow, the Road Ministry stated that the first stretch of e highway will likely be completed by mid-2022.

The first stretch where the government is considering

rolling out the project is the 200 km-long Delhi-Jaipur highway on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, where 20 per cent of the roads will be electrified.

PROJECT

• An electric highway or electric road recharges the batteries of vehicles driving on it.

• It is considered an energy-efficient option and helps in reducing carbon footprint.

• The e-highway project has been a keen focus area for Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

• In an interview, Gadkari had said India may soon have an 'electric highway' stretch, similar to the one in Sweden.

• During Question Hour in the Lok Sabha in March this year, the Union Minister said, "Buses and trucks can ply on this e highway at a speed of 120 kmph and will bring down the logistics cost by 70 per cent."

• A separate lane will be built to recharge the batteries of cargo trucks and other electric vehicles.

• Electric highways in India will focus on trucks and freight transport that carries white goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and FMCG products.

• The budgeting for the electrical highways will be through the PPP model (private-public partnership), where the government will provide incentives to industry partners to roll out the technology on highways and provide land for the same, while original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will install the contact arm in vehicles.

ENCOURAGE FOR E-VEHICLES

• E-highways are also a part of the government's efforts to encourage people to switch to electrical vehicles.

• In the 2019 Union budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced income tax exemption of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for people who would buy e-vehicles on a loan.

• The central government also brought down GST rates from 12 to 5 per cent in 2019.

TECHNOLOGY

• Three different technologies can be deployed to construct electric highways.

• The technology which will be implemented in India is the pantograph model where a contact arm is attached on the top of the freight or electric vehicle which is connected to an overhead cable that is electrically charged for that stretch of the highway.

•Germany used the same technology to build its electric roads.

• The other two technologies are the conduction method, in which the contact arm for the motor vehicle is at the bottom and connects to the road to be charged.

• In the conduction method, the road is required to have an electromagnetic current.

• The third one is the induction model, where there is no contact-arm and the vehicle is charged through an electro magnetic technology which has to be installed on both the roads and the vehicle.