New Delhi: To lay the ground for the use of Green Hydrogen in buses and trucks, the government has initiated five pilot projects, consisting of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks) and nine hydrogen refueling stations, under the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM). The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had issued guidelines for implementing Green Hydrogen pilot projects in the transport sector under NGHM. Accordingly, proposals were invited for different types of hydrogen-based vehicles, routes, and hydrogen refueling stations. The above projects have been awarded to companies like Tata Motors Ltd, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), NTPC Ltd, ANERT, Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).
“After detailed scrutiny, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned five pilot projects consisting total of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and 9 hydrogen refueling stations,” said the ministry in a statement on Monday.
The Green Hydrogen vehicles that will be deployed for the trial include 15 hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles and 22 hydrogen internal combustion engine-based vehicles. These vehicles will run on 10 different routes across the country — 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.
“The thrust area for providing support under the scheme is the development of commercially viable technologies for the utilisation of hydrogen in the transport sector as fuel in buses and trucks and Supporting infrastructure like Hydrogen refueling stations,” said the MNRE.
The total financial support for selected projects made available will be around Rs 208 crore from the government. These pilot projects are likely to be commissioned in the next 18-24 months, paving the way to the scaling up of such technologies in India.
“One of the objectives of the Mission is to support the deployment of Green Hydrogen as fuel in buses and trucks, in a phased manner on a pilot basis. These pilot projects can demonstrate safe and secure operations, assess the effectiveness of hydrogen-based vehicles and refueling stations, validate technical feasibility and performance, and evaluate their economic viability, thereby leading to hydrogen-based vehicles and hydrogen refueling stations under real-world operational conditions,” said the MNRE. The National Green Hydrogen Mission was launched on January 4, 2023 with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore up to FY2029-30.
