The state’s green push via the Gujarat State Electric Vehicle Policy 2021 has hurled a new threat for municipal corporations — the safety of basement parking areas. While the policy permits for charging stations in parking lots, a series of recent fires including electric vehicles (EVs) has cast a shadow over having such a resource in basement parking lots.
A senior Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) official stated, “The possibility of a fire caused by charging a vehicle in the basement, a confined parking space, which often lacks safety features, is particularly concerning.”
The unfortunate event that occurred in Old Rajendra Nagar, Delhi, when three pupils perished after rains flooded a basement coaching facility highlights the potential dangers of these types of areas and the difficulties in conducting rescue efforts. Experts caution that such an event can have disastrous consequences if it is made worse by an EV fire.
There have already been several EV-related fires in the city. On June 25, two additional buses at Ahmedabad’s Vastral depot were affected by a fire that started in a BRTS bus that was being charged. A few days prior, on June 21, a young woman was killed by a cylinder explosion caused by an e-vehicle battery fire in the Limbayat neighborhood of Surat. When an e-vehicle was being charged at Patan’s Hira Moti Society two years ago, a fire broke out. Two years prior, a another fire at the e-vehicle charging station at the Navrangpura multilevel parking lot reduced the cars to ashes. An e-vehicle in Surat caught fire in February 2022 as it was being charged; the incident went viral on social media.
Not withstanding these occurrences, the state government has authorized the installation of EV charging stations in parking lots in accordance with the EV policy. EV charging stations have been installed at the Navrangpura multilevel parking and other municipal corporate sites, despite the fact that the city does not yet have basement parking.
The AMC intends to use a public-private collaboration to install EV charging stations in open areas and beneath flyovers, but private industry reaction has been muted. Just 27 of the 81 suggested places have attracted interest. Notably, no plans for EV charging stations in newly constructed buildings or the basements of private societies have been approved.
