The government has awarded projects to companies like TATA Motors, Reliance Industries, 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 of New and Renewable Energy had issued guidelines for implementing pilot projects in the transport sector under this Mission. Accordingly, the proposals were invited for different types of hydrogen-based vehicles, routes, and hydrogen refueling stations. After detailed scrutiny, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned five pilot projects consisting a total of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and 9 hydrogen refueling 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 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.

The total financial support for selected projects made available will be around Rs. 208 crore from the Government of India. 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.