The Chief Minister's Office of Odisha announced on Saturday, June 6, 2026, that the state is drafting a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to set up electric vehicle charging stations across Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), signalling a push to deepen the state's green mobility infrastructure in its cities and towns.

Context

The move comes as Indian states accelerate efforts to build city-level EV charging networks in line with national decarbonisation goals. Odisha joins a growing list of states — including Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu — that have issued or revised urban EV charging frameworks targeting municipal bodies as the primary implementation unit. The SOP is intended to provide a standardised blueprint for municipalities to plan, procure, and operate public charging infrastructure.

Urban Local Bodies in Odisha — comprising municipal corporations, municipalities, and notified area councils — manage civic infrastructure across the state's towns. Bringing them formally into the EV charging rollout addresses a critical last-mile gap: while highways and private premises have seen some charging deployment, dense urban residential and commercial zones have lagged.

Policy Backdrop

Odisha notified its Electric Vehicle Policy 2021, which laid out incentives for EV purchase, manufacturing investment, and charging infrastructure development. The state also participated in the FAME India scheme — the central government's flagship programme for faster adoption of EVs, launched in 2015 and extended in successive phases — which supported the deployment of electric buses and public charging points across Indian cities.

The new SOP draft represents the next layer of that policy architecture: translating broad framework goals into operational procedures that municipal officials can follow on the ground. Standardisation is widely seen as essential to avoid fragmented, incompatible installations that have hampered EV charging rollouts in some cities.

Stakeholders and Impact

Urban commuters stand to benefit most directly if the SOP leads to a denser, more reliable public charging network. EV charging operators — both public-sector utilities and private concessionaires — will look to the SOP for clarity on site-allocation norms, technical specifications, tariff structures, and safety standards. Municipal bodies themselves will need capacity-building support to implement and maintain the new infrastructure.

India's broader EV transition is partly contingent on charging anxiety: surveys consistently show that the perceived scarcity of public chargers is among the top barriers to EV adoption. An SOP that enables Odisha's dozens of ULBs to systematically add charging points could meaningfully shift that calculus for urban residents considering an EV purchase.

What's Next

Stakeholders will watch for the finalisation and official notification of the SOP, including details on funding integration with updated central schemes and timelines for phased rollout across ULBs of different sizes. Growth in Odisha's EV registration numbers and charging-station utilisation data from municipal bodies will serve as early indicators of whether the framework translates into on-ground infrastructure. The state's approach may also inform how other eastern Indian states structure similar urban charging mandates.