BHUBANESWAR : Green hydrogen buses will soon ply on the Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri route as part of the Centre’s ambitious National Green Hydrogen Mission.
Sources said after detailed scrutiny, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has sanctioned five pilot projects comprising a total of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and nine hydrogen refuelling stations across as many different routes in the country.
The vehicles that will be deployed for the trial include 15 of those that run on hydrogen fuel cell and 22 others that are hydrogen internal combustion engine-based. These vehicles will run on 10 different routes across the country including Odisha’s Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri stretch.
The remaining eight routes finalised are Greater Noida-Delhi-Agra, Ahmedabad-Vadodara-Surat, Sahibabad-Faridabad-Delhi, Pune-Mumbai, Jamshedpur-Kalinga Nagar, Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi, Kochi-Edappally, Jamnagar-Ahmedabad, and NH-16 Visakhapatnam-Bayyavaram.
These projects are likely to be commissioned in the next 18-24 months, paving way to the scale-up of such technologies in India, MNRE officials said.
The works have been awarded to major companies like TATA Motors Ltd, Reliance Industries Limited, NTPC, ANERT, Ashok Leyland, HPCL, BPCL and IOCL and the total financial support for these projects will be around `208 crore, they added.
Sources said the project will be implemented in Odisha with an investment of Rs 19.5 crore by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), to facilitate the transition from fossil fuel-based buses to eco-friendly hydrogen-powered buses. A tripartite MoU has been signed among NTPC, GRIDCO and CRUT for the purpose.
According to MNRE authorities, the pilot projects will test effectiveness of hydrogen-based vehicles and refuelling stations, and evaluate their technical feasibility, performance and economic viability for rollout of hydrogen-based vehicles and hydrogen refuelling stations under real-world operational conditions to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports.