Ratan Tata dreams of hydrogen vehicles
The Tribune — November 22, 2005

After declaring to launch a people's car for about Rs 1 lakh in the next three years, Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, has set his eyes on launching hydrogen-driven vehicles. As the Chairman of the steering Group on Hydrogen Energy, he today presented the National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap to the nation. "If implemented with sincerity, it will put at least one million hydrogen vehicles on Indian roads by 2020," he said. "India can provide the roadmap for other countries also in this area," he said while presenting the report to Minister for Non-Conventional Energy Sources Vilas Muttemwar.

The roadmap has proposed that in addition to existing methods of hydrogen production based on steam methane reformation, the production of hydrogen from coal gasification, nuclear energy, biomass, biological and renewable energy methods needs to be developed urgently. The roadmap has proposed two major initiatives, namely Green initiative for Future Transport (GIFT) and Green initiative for Power Generation (GIP). The roadmap has projected an estimated investment of about Rs 25,000 crore of which about Rs 1,000 crore would be for research, development and demonstration and about Rs 24,000 crore for creating infrastructure for hydrogen production, its storage, transportation and distribution for meeting requirements of hydrogen under GIFT and the GIP.