Government initiates five pilot projects to deploy hydrogen fuel-based vehicles

New Delhi: The government has launched five pilot projects to deploy hydrogen fuel-based vehicles for trial as part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said on Monday.

As many as 37 hydrogen-fueled vehicles, including buses and trucks, will be deployed for trial run under the pilot projects across the country.

These vehicles will run on 10 different routes across the country, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the above projects are awarded to major companies like TATA Motors Ltd, Reliance Industries Limited, NTPC, ANERT, Ashok Leyland, HPCL, BPCL, and IOCL.

As part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the government has initiated five pilot projects for using Hydrogen in buses and trucks.

Earlier, the ministry had issued guidelines for implementing pilot projects in the transport sector under this mission.

Accordingly, the ministry said, proposals were invited for different types of hydrogen-based vehicles, routes, and hydrogen refuelling stations.

After detailed scrutiny, the ministry has sanctioned five pilot projects consisting total of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and 9 hydrogen refuelling stations.

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 total financial support for selected projects made available will be around Rs 208 crore from the Centre.

These pilot projects are likely to be commissioned in the next 18-24 months, paving the way to the scaleup of such technologies in India.

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 refuelling stations.

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 refuelling stations, validate technical feasibility and performance,

and evaluate their economic viability, thereby, leading to hydrogen-based vehicles and hydrogen refuelling stations under real-world operational conditions.