Electric vehicle charging station on college premises puts more muscle into go-green movement

The charging station on the college campus. Pic/Sameer Markande

The atmosphere is electric, quite literally, at Kandivli Education Society's (KES) B K Shroff College Of Arts and M H Shroff College Of Commerce in Kandivli West. The sprawling campus now has an electric vehicle (EV) charging station which can charge up to four two-wheelers at a time. The charging station was inaugurated earlier this week, and adds a new dimension to the college's several go-green initiatives.

Action

Principal Dr Lily Bhushan said, "If not the first ever, our college is one of the very few in the city that has a charging station inside its premises. This effort began two months ago. The station can charge up to four two-wheelers at a time and is free for staff and students. It became operational this week." For Bhushan, it is imperative that one leaps from awareness to action. "There has been so much discussion on lessening carbon footprint. While it has led to most of us being more sensitive to save the environment, I believe we must act on that too. We began with taking a survey of 11,000 students about the need to have a charging station on the college campus. We had 1,800 responses. Most were enthused with at least 400 students saying they intend to buy an electric two-wheeler soon," explained Bhushan.

Initiatives

This college already has a vertical garden made of old tires. There are rain water harvesting, percolation pits, and waste management with a composting bed. "We had installed solar panels on our building roof around five years ago, and that led to a reduction of approximately R47,000 in monthly electricity bills. We teach students how to make handcrafted paper out of ‘raddi' (waste paper). We have medicinal, herbal and kitchen gardens. Students can learn these life skills. And given the plant nurseries boom in Mumbai, this learning may translate into future employment," said Bhushan.

First

The EV scenario is the classic chicken ‘n' egg situation: who came first - the chicken or the egg? Which comes first, EVs or charging stations? Jitendra Pardeshi, superintendent of gardens, BMC, who was present at the charging station inauguration at the college, said, "Even though there are not too many EVs, the evolution has just begun. We need as many charging stations as possible for people to see that charging points are accessible. We have to make a start somewhere and this is a step in the right direction towards saving nature."

Accessible

Sweta Shah, junior college professor, believes, like Pardeshi, that a start has to be made somewhere. "That start has to come from us," said Shah, who bought an electric two-wheeler three months ago. "Fuel prices are escalating crazily and this also aligns with climate change consciousness," said Shah, who added that the college charging station is immensely useful.

"Some new age buildings do have a charging station in the parking premises, but my housing society does not. I used to carry the 9- kg battery to my home, plug it in and charge it. This station saves me that trouble. A couple of residents in my society also bought EVs after me," she said.

Mission Green founder Subhajit Mukerjee said, "The success of e-mobility is incumbent on the availability of charging stations. If we want to see large-scale change from the grassroots, it is important for educational institutes to promote e-mobility."