Panchayati Raj ministry and CESL plan EV charging on panchayat land

India's Ministry of Panchayati Raj signed a memorandum of understanding with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) on October 30, 2026, to set up electric vehicle charging and battery swapping stations on panchayat land throughout the country, the ministry announced. CESL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power, takes on the build and the running: site assessment, demand aggregation, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, operation and maintenance. The ministry's job is to facilitate coordination with state Panchayati Raj departments to identify and monitor sites.

The ministry says the partnership will take clean mobility infrastructure "beyond urban centres," including suitable locations along state and national highways and on panchayat premises, for two-, three- and four-wheelers and medium and heavy-duty vehicles.

In the ministry's telling the stations are as much a revenue line as a charging network. The release says the partnership will create "new Own Sources of Revenue (OSR) opportunities for Gram, Block and District Panchayats across States and Union Territories" and says panchayat land "will become a productive community asset, generating recurring income for civic services, infrastructure and community welfare". The motive was on the agenda the same day: at the national workshop where the MoU was signed, Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh said gram panchayats need to raise own-source revenue to become eligible for performance grants.

For a deal pitched on income, the release does not say how the income is split. It gives no station count, investment figure or schedule either, and its last word on the partnership is that the ministry and CESL "will explore how Panchayat-level public assets can help expand access to electric-mobility infrastructure". For now, the chargers have a builder and a landlord, and not yet a number.