Data engineer Kiruba Joy’s search for a reliable EV charging facility in a gated community in Chennai remains elusive. Three years ago, when the resident association at the 300-unit apartment community in Porur, where Kiruba owns a flat, refused to facilitate a separate connection for him to charge his electric car, he shifted to a rented accommodation in Kolathur.
Now a resident of Paniyur near Uthandi, for the last nine months Kiruba has been visiting various apartment communities in South Chennai to invest in a flat that comes with a separate charging infrastructure for every parking lot. The hunt has been frustrating.
“After the State Government brought a notification in October 2025 that buildings with more than 50 dwelling units should provide fast charging points, I took it up with my association but they refused citing a safety issue,” says Kiruba.
At his current home, he has a 20 meter wire running from the second floor of his flat’s AC point to the parking area. As there are only six homes and no other tenant with an EV vehicle, Kiruba got consent from the other residents.
A gazette notification dated October 31, 2025 by the Housing and Urban Development Department of Tamil Nadu issued amendments to the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019. It asks residential communities to provide a charging point for electric vehicles at every car and two-wheeler parking space. In buildings where the number of dwelling units exceeds 50, car and two-wheeler parking space earmarked for visitors shall be provided with fast charging points.
Many apartment associations The Hindu Downtown spoke note they are physical and technical challenges in getting even a basic common charging infrastructure, let alone a separate charging point for every parking lot.
While many apartment associations discourage individuals from connecting their vehicles to their own meter, some allow it at the individual’s risk.
Christopher M.P., a resident of a 120-unit apartment in Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Perambur, has a wire running from the third floor of his flat to the parking area where his electric two-wheeler is parked.
“Currently we have six electric vehicles in our community and the association was considering putting up a common charging point, but the vendor came up with the condition that even outsiders should be allowed to use the facility, which was not accepted, so we continue with this arrangement,” says Christopher.
Many users like Kiruba who have switched to EV to reduce the budget on their fuel bills feel having just one or two charging points does not serve the purpose.
“For instance, it takes eight hours to charge my car and if there are even half-a-dozen EV cars in the community so you need an ample number of charging points,” says Kiruba. He adds, “Charging from my home is cheaper than doing so at a common point as the latter involves a commercial rate and a fee for the vendor and association. So I am now looking for a community that also offers solar so my electricity bill would reduce drastically.”
CREDAI’s stand
After the State Government notification, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India - Chennai sent a letter to the Additional Chief Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department in November 2025, stating that it is not possible to provide individual charging infrastructure even in their upcoming projects.
“The requirement of a one-to-one charger-to-parking ratio may be technically unnecessary, financially burdensome, and operationally impractical, especially in large residential developments,” reads the letter signed by A. Mohamed Ali, president, CREDAI- Chennai.
The Confederation suggested that Tamil Nadu follow a progressive, scalable model that includes a minimum of three EV chargers for buildings with 10–75 parking slots; one charger per 25 parking slots thereafter; upgradation to one per 18 slots by 2030 and one per 15 slots by 2035; and mandatory trunking, ducting and electrical provisioning to double capacity when required.
Global benchmarks support shared charging models with intelligent scheduling and public charging. According to the note, countries with significantly higher EV penetration, like Norway, the Netherlands, China, the United Kingdom, follow shared charging ratios such as 1:8, 1:10, or 1:15.
Published - July 11, 2026 10:22 am IST