As part of its mission to promote green hydrogen in the transport sector under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the government has announced five pilot projects for buses and trucks.
The pilots will have participation from major companies such as Tata Motors Ltd. and Ashok Leyland on the vehicle front, while NTPC, Reliance Industries Limited, HPCL, BPCL, and IOCL will provide the fuel supply.
Proposals had been invited for different types of hydrogen-based vehicles, routes, and hydrogen refueling stations. After detailed scrutiny, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has sanctioned five pilot projects, totaling 37 vehicles (buses and trucks) and nine hydrogen refueling stations.
The total financial support for the selected projects will be around Rs. 208 crore.
The vehicles that will be deployed for the trial include 15 hydrogen fuel-cell-based vehicles and 22 hydrogen internal combustion engine-based vehicles.
The vehicles will run on 10 different routes across the country, viz., Greater Noida – Delhi – Agra, Bhubaneshwar – Konark – Puri, Ahmedabad – Vadodara – Surat, Sahibabad – Faridabad – Delhi, Pune – Mumbai, Jamshedpur – Kalinga Nagar, Thiruvananthapuram – Kochi, Kochi – Edappally, Jamnagar – Ahmedabad, and NH-16 Visakhapatnam – Bayyavaram.
Development of commercially viable technologies for the utilization of hydrogen in the transport sector as fuel in buses and trucks and supporting infrastructure like hydrogen refueling stations is one of the key thrust areas under the NGHM.
The pilot projects are designed to demonstrate safety of operations and assess the effectiveness of hydrogen-based vehicles and refueling stations.
