The central government is planning a master app that will show real-time availability of electric vehicle (EV) charging slots nearby on a map, to ease range anxiety and boost adoption.

Niti Aayog held a stakeholder meeting on June 7 with companies operating public EV chargers, and discussed the app as well as possible plans for a beta version in the next few weeks, said people who attended the meeting.

Users of such an app can discover the nearest available charging station, book a slot in advance and make payments. The project is being funded by the Asian Development Bank and the app will be owned and operated by the Indian government.

The current challenge is that charging stations are operated by various companies and most have their dedicated apps. As they aren't interoperable, users have to download multiple apps.

"Aggregation is the need of the hour. However, the app needs to be thoroughly tested, validated and integrated at the software level," said Kartikey Hariyani, founder and chief executive of Charge Zone, a charging station operator.

The idea of a common app for EV charging was floated earlier by state-run Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL). That got stalled due to difficulties in sourcing and collating data, sources said.