Tata Motors, RIL part of pilot project to test run hydrogen-powered buses, trucks

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) on Monday (3 Mar ’25) said that five pilot projects for running buses and trucks powered by hydrogen with participation from TATA Motors, Reliance Industries (RIL), Ashok Leyland, among others. These pilot projects are part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Earlier, the Ministry had issued guidelines for implementing such pilot projects in the transport sector under the mission.

Accordingly, the Ministry invited proposals for different types of hydrogen-based vehicles, routes, and hydrogen refuelling stations. “After detailed scrutiny, the MNRE has sanctioned five pilot projects consisting of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and nine 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,” MNRE said.

The vehicles will run on ten routes across India, 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.

State-run entities such as NTPC, Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Indian Petroleum Corporation (IoCL), are also part of the projects. The total financial support for selected projects will be around ₹208 crore from the Centre. 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. 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 effectiveness of hydrogen-based vehicles and refuelling stations.

It will also aid in validating technical feasibility and performance, as well as evaluate their economic viability, leading to hydrogen-based vehicles and hydrogen refuelling stations under real-world operational conditions.