India clears ₹503.86 crore EV chargers

India’s Ministry of Heavy Industries said on May 12 that it had approved proposals worth ₹503.86 crore to install 4,874 public electric-vehicle chargers under the PM E-DRIVE scheme. Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy announced the approvals at a national conference in Bengaluru on charging infrastructure under the program. The approved proposals cover central public sector enterprises and a group of states, according to the ministry. The announcement adds to a wider federal plan to build out a national public charging network as India pushes EV adoption. ### Which states and companies were included in this approval round? The May 12 approvals cover CPSEs including HPCL, IOCL and BPCL, along with Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the ministry said. Karnataka alone accounted for 1,243 chargers with an outlay of ₹123.26 crore, according to Kumaraswamy’s remarks at the conference. (pib.gov.in) Bengaluru hosted the conference, which brought together state and union territory officials, charge-point operators, EV manufacturers, oil marketing companies and industry groups, the ministry said. Kumaraswamy said the government was committed to building a “modern and reliable” charging ecosystem to support cleaner mobility. ### How does this fit into the larger PM E-DRIVE plan? (pib.gov.in) The PM E-DRIVE scheme has a total budget of ₹10,900 crore for two years, according to a December 2024 parliamentary reply from the Ministry of Heavy Industries. Of that amount, ₹2,000 crore was earmarked for public charging stations. A May 21, 2025 ministry statement said that ₹2,000 crore charging allocation is intended to support about 72,000 public charging stations nationwide. (pib.gov.in) The government said those stations would be placed along 50 national highway corridors and at high-traffic sites including metro cities, toll plazas, railway stations, airports, fuel outlets and state highways. (pib.gov.in) ### What problem is the government trying to solve with this spending? The charging allocation is meant to fund “adequate public charging infrastructure” for different categories of EVs, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, buses and trucks, the ministry has said. In a separate parliamentary reply, the government said the spending was intended to “instil confidence” among EV users. (pib.gov.in) As of December 17, 2024, India had 25,202 installed public EV charging stations, according to information cited by the Ministry of Heavy Industries from the Ministry of Power. Karnataka had 5,765 stations, Maharashtra 3,728 and Uttar Pradesh 1,989, while Bihar had 347, the ministry said. ### What is the unified app the government has discussed? (pib.gov.in) BHEL is being considered as the nodal agency for demand aggregation and for development of a unified digital “super app” for EV users, the ministry said in May 2025. The proposed platform would include real-time slot booking, payment integration, charger-availability status and dashboards to track deployment under PM E-DRIVE. (pib.gov.in) The same statement said BHEL would coordinate with states and ministries to compile and evaluate proposals for charger installations. The ministry has separately said eligible entities for subsidy funding include central ministries, CPSEs, states, union territories and their public-sector units. ### What comes next in the rollout? The ministry said on May 12 that more state and CPSE proposals were being processed through the PM E-DRIVE framework, with implementation relying on coordination among the Centre, states, BHEL, charge-point operators and industry stakeholders. (pib.gov.in) The conference in Bengaluru focused on deployment strategies and best practices as the government moves from approvals to installation. Under the existing scheme design, future charging locations are to be selected by central ministries, state governments and CPSEs using technical factors such as EV density, according to a parliamentary reply published in 2025. That means the next visible milestones are likely to be additional approved proposals, site-level allocations and progress on the national digital platform that BHEL has been asked to help shape. (pib.gov.in 1) (pib.gov.in 2)