New Town: Charging electric cars and scooters on the go is a reality in New Town.

As many as 10 charging docks have been set up by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) in all three action areas of the township.

"Battery-powered buses now ply on the New Town roads. These charging points will now make battery-driven cars and bikes more popular," said an official of the NKDA, the administrative body of the township.

The density of e-vehicle- users in New Town is higher than other parts of the city.

The charging stations are mostly located at public parking lots for the benefit of the owners, who can get their vehicles charged while remaining busy at work.

The stations, designed by NKDA engineers, have two types of universal charging points to enable any e-vehicle to get charged. Each station has a circuit-breaker which stops charging during an emergency.

The stations have come up near the Rabindra Tirtha intersection, adjacent to the Kolkata Gate, the parking lot near Tata Medical Center and the Eco Park parking lots near gates 1, 4 and 6, among other places.

"The stations address a key problem faced by owners of e-vehicles - what to do if the batteries run out of charge on the road," the NKDA official said.

Most e-vehicles run more than 100km on a single charge. Some like the Mahindra e2O and the e-Verito can run a few more kilometres even after the battery dies.

In Norway, where electric cars are very popular, charging points are placed at all parking spaces.

The buyers of e-vehicles in Norway do not have to pay import tax and VAT. The cost of running such vehicles is less compared with the ones powered by petrol or diesel.

Calcutta, on the other hand, is taking baby steps in setting up infrastructure for e-vehicles and New Town is the only place where public charging docks have been set up.

NKDA chairman Debashis Sen said the infrastructure for charging e-vehicles had been set up to encourage residents to switch to environment-friendly vehicles.

"Now that charging stations have been set up, the owners of e-vehicles will not have to spend anxious moments wondering what to do once the batteries run out of charge. They can go to work and park next to a dock and charge the batteries," said Sen, who drives a Mahindra e2O.

"We have fixed the charging fee at Rs 20 an hour. It will help us recover the cost of installing the docks," Sen said.

Shovik Das, who rides an electric scooter, said the only place where he could charge the batteries till recently was his house.

"Now, there are enough charging stations," said Das, who works at an office near the Unitech bus stop in New Town.