Centre Clears 382 EV Charging Sites in Delhi, Tenders for First 160–180 Locations Coming Soon

The Centre has cleared 382 sites across Delhi for public EV charging. The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) approved them from a shortlist of 456 locations put together by the Delhi government's Revenue Department and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Power Minister Ashish Sood announced on 4 October 2026. Delhi will now float tenders for a first batch of 160 to 180 sites, starting with the ones where power supply and grid connections are already confirmed. Every site has been tagged for two-wheelers, three-wheelers or four-wheelers. The urgency comes from the Delhi EV Policy 2026: from 1 January 2027, only electric three-wheelers can be newly registered in Delhi, and electric-only two-wheeler registration follows on 1 April 2028.

So if you ride an e-scooter, drive an auto, run a delivery fleet, or you're eyeing the tender as a charging operator, this one's about you.

Below, I'll walk you through what was actually approved, why the numbers look the way they do, and the bits that could slow things down. No fluff, promise.

The approval at a glance

Here's everything that was announced, in one place. Skim this and you've got 80% of the story.

Why 382 sites, and why only 160 to 180 go first

You might be wondering what happened to the other 74 sites. Honest answer? Officials haven't said why they were dropped. Anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.

What we do know is how the 382 were handled. Over the three months since the new policy was notified on 30 June, every approved site was reassessed and sorted by the vehicle it should serve. That sounds like paperwork, but it's actually the smartest part of this plan.

Why tagging sites by vehicle type matters

Picture a single charging lot trying to serve everyone. An e-auto driver needs a quick top-up between rides. A car owner wants a fast DC charger and a proper parking bay. A delivery rider on a scooter just needs a cheap socket and five square feet.

Those are very different machines with very different space and power needs. Older public charging rollouts often installed generic chargers and hoped demand would show up. Delhi is now matching the hardware to the user before anything gets built.

Why power comes first

The first tender batch is limited to sites with confirmed power availability and grid feasibility. That's a quiet admission of the biggest real-world bottleneck.

You can own the land and buy the chargers... but if the local DISCOM can't deliver a high-capacity connection, the site sits idle for months. Starting with grid-ready locations means the first chargers can actually switch on, instead of becoming another row of covered-up boxes.

This isn't Delhi's first attempt

Back in February 2021, Delhi Transco floated what it called India's largest public charging tender: 100 stations with 500 charging points, mostly at Metro stations and DTC bus depots. The lesson from that era was simple. Land and power, not chargers, decide how fast you go. This round seems built around that lesson, with a central approval process and KPMG brought in as the project management unit.

The deadlines behind the rush

Why now? Because Delhi has moved from encouraging EVs to requiring them in some segments. The Delhi EV Policy 2026 runs from 1 July 2026 to 31 March 2030 and swaps subsidy-led growth for registration mandates.

Now look at the gap. The approval landed in October 2026. The three-wheeler mandate starts in January 2027. That's roughly three months, and tenders haven't even been floated yet.

Here's the thing most coverage glosses over: the first public chargers from this tranche almost certainly won't be live before the e-auto mandate kicks in. Tendering, contracts, power connections and civil work take time. Realistically, the April 2028 two-wheeler deadline is the one this network can actually meet. Early e-auto buyers will lean on depot charging, battery swapping and home sockets for a while.

The two-wheeler push is the big one anyway. Two-wheelers make up about 67% of Delhi's vehicle stock, so getting scooter-friendly chargers in place before 2028 matters far more than headline counts.

What this means for you

The same news lands very differently depending on what you drive, or what you're trying to build. Find yourself below.

If you ride (or plan to buy) an electric scooter

You're the main audience for this network. Registrations of e-two-wheelers jumped 30% between July and September 2026, the first three months of the new policy.

My practical advice: don't buy based on a charger that doesn't exist yet. Most scooter owners charge at home overnight, and public points are a backup. Before you buy, check whether you can get a socket in your parking spot. No socket? A scooter with a removable battery lets you charge indoors, and our guide on removable vs fixed EV batteries helps you pick the right one.

If you drive an auto-rickshaw

From January 2027, any new auto you register in Delhi has to be electric. The purchase incentive is up to ₹50,000 in year one, tapering to ₹30,000 by year three, plus road tax and registration fee exemptions. So buying earlier pays more.

Just don't count on the new public network on day one. Ask your dealer about battery swapping partners nearby, and use the EVFY charger finder to see which public chargers already sit on your daily route.

If you own (or want) an electric car

Four-wheelers are part of the tagged sites, so expect some DC fast charging in the mix. There's no registration mandate for cars yet, though the policy says the government intends to bring one later. Home or office charging still does most of the work for car owners.

If you're a charge point operator or bidder

This is your window. A few things I'd watch closely once the tender documents drop:

• Site packaging: Earlier Delhi tenders bundled locations into packages you had to bid on as a whole. A good package mixes busy sites with quiet ones, so price for the average, not the best site.
• Power cost and connection timelines: Batch one is grid-ready, but check who pays for upgrades and how long DISCOM approvals take.
• Vehicle mix per site: A two-wheeler-heavy site earns on volume and low tariffs. Plan your hardware and revenue model around the tag.
• Uptime clauses: Expect penalties for downtime. Budget for maintenance from day one.

One more thing: the policy requires every OEM operating in Delhi to run at least one public charging station per dealer. That means more competition near showrooms, and more partnership chances too.

The takeaway

Delhi now has central approval for 382 public charging sites, and the first 160 to 180 are heading to tender. The plan is smarter than past rounds: sites are matched to vehicle types, and the first batch starts where the grid is ready.

But approval isn't infrastructure. The e-auto mandate arrives in January 2027, well before these chargers can realistically switch on. The real test is the two-wheeler deadline in April 2028, and whether the remaining ~200 sites get their power in time.

My advice? If you're buying an EV in Delhi, sort out home charging first and treat the public network as a bonus. If you're bidding, read the power and uptime clauses twice. Either way, watch for the tender notice. That's when this story gets real.