In a boost to the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the government has initiated five pilot projects for using hydrogen in buses and trucks.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had issued guidelines for implementing oilot projects in the transport sector under this Mission.

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.

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

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 scale-up of such technologies in India.

According to the Ministry, 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.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission was launched on January 4, 2023 with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore up to FY 2029-30.