Govt awards 12 projects for deployment of hydrogen-powered vehicles

A total of 12 pilot projects have been awarded for deployment of 70 hydrogen-powered vehicles under the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) with financial assistance of Rs 410.77 crore, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The projects comprise 27 buses and 43 trucks, including fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and hydrogen internal combustion engine (H-ICE) vehicles, along with 16 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) across 21 routes in different states, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Shripad Yesso Naik said in Lok Sabha.

The total financial assistance allocated for these projects is approximately Rs 410.77 crore, out of which Rs 41.582 crore has been released, he said.

As per the details shared by the minister, these pilots are being undertaken by both private and public entities such as NHPC, NTPC, Tata Motors+IOCL, RIL+AL, HPCL+Volvo, NTPC-GEL, among others. In a separate reply, Naik also said that under the mission, fertiliser manufacturing has been identified as the potential sector for consumption of green ammonia, and accordingly, the Department of Fertilisers (DoF) has aggregated demand of 7.24 lakh tonnes per annum of Green Ammonia for supply to 13 fertiliser units across India.

Under the NGHM, the scheme guidelines have been issued for incentives towards Green Ammonia Production.

Under the scheme, the incentives are Rs 8.82/kg for Green Ammonia in the first year of production and supply, Rs 7.06/kg in the second year, and Rs 5.30/kg in the third year.