Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday launched "India's first indigenously developed hydrogen fuel cell bus". The bus, developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and private firm KPIT Limited, was showcased in Pune earlier today.

The Union Minister of State for Science and Technology later said Prime Minister Modi's Hydrogen Vision is important for India to ensure Atma Nirbhar means of affordable and accessible clean energy, meeting climate change goals, and creating new entrepreneurs and jobs. He said, Green hydrogen is an excellent clean energy vector that enables deep decarbonization of difficult-to-abate emissions from the refining industry, fertiliser industry, steel industry, cement industry and also from the heavy commercial transportation sector.

The fuel cell utilizes Hydrogen and Air to generate electricity to power the bus and the only effluent from the bus is water, therefore making it possibly the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation, Singh was quoted as saying.

For comparison, a single diesel bus plying on long distance routes typically emits 100 tons of CO2 annually and there are over a million such buses in India, the release added.

The operational cost of hydrogen fuel cell trucks is lower than ones run on diesel and this could bring about a freight revolution in the country, he said.

"About 12-14 per cent of CO2 emissions come diesel powered heavy vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles provide excellent means to eliminate on-road emissions in this sector," he said.