Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, announced the launch of India’s first hydrogen highways during Day 2 of the inaugural World Hydrogen India event, organized by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Speaking virtually to a global audience of industry leaders, policymakers, and energy experts, Gadkari shared India’s ambitious plans to achieve fuel self-reliance and transform agriculture into a major energy powerhouse.
In his address, Gadkari emphasized the urgency of reducing India’s dependency on crude oil, which currently accounts for 87% of the country’s demand and costs the economy nearly Rs 22 lakh crore annually. He declared, “Hydrogen is the fuel of the future,” and highlighted that India had just launched the world’s first large-scale hydrogen truck trials. The trials will be supported by a Rs 500 crore budget allocation, distributed across five consortiums working on ten key routes, with 37 vehicles involved. Major industry partners, including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo, BPCL, IOCL, NTPC, and Reliance, are collaborating on the project. Nine hydrogen refuelling stations will be set up to facilitate these trials, marking the creation of India’s first hydrogen highways—designed to support clean, long-haul mobility.
The two-year trials will take place on key routes linking industry clusters, ports, and freight corridors where hydrogen can have an immediate impact. These routes include Greater Noida, Delhi, Agra, Bhubaneswar, Konark, Puri, Vadodara, Surat, Sahibabad, Faridabad, Pune, Mumbai, Jamshedpur, Kalinga, Thiruvananthapuram, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Kochi, and Vishakhapatnam. The trials will not only focus on vehicles but also on developing the full hydrogen value chain, including infrastructure for compression, storage, transport, and refuelling.
Gadkari further outlined the national goal of producing 5 million tons of green hydrogen annually by 2030, which is expected to create 6 lakh jobs and attract investments worth Rs 8 lakh crore. He added that this transition would help India reduce fossil fuel imports by Rs 1 lakh crore per year and cut CO2 emissions by 3.6 gigatons by 2050—equivalent to planting over 1,000 crore trees.
“India will be a manufacturer, an innovator, and an exporter,” Gadkari stated. “We will convert agriculture into energy, secure our fuel supplies, create jobs, and reduce emissions—all at once. This is India’s moment to lead in clean fuels.”
Amitabh Kant, former CEO of NITI Aayog, provided a broader economic perspective, stressing that India’s growth trajectory toward becoming a USD 30 trillion economy by 2047 must be underpinned by sustainability. Kant emphasized that green hydrogen is not just an energy solution, but a driver for job creation, exports, manufacturing, and competitiveness, while positioning India as a climate leader.
“Green hydrogen is the key to decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like cement, shipping, aviation, and long-haul transport,” Kant said. He highlighted five major advantages that India holds: the world’s cheapest renewable energy, clear government policies, a robust industrial base, large domestic demand, and strong export opportunities to markets such as Japan and Europe.
Kant called for a range of initiatives, including government-to-government agreements, local electrolyser manufacturing, global marketing of India’s green hydrogen story, large-scale skill development programs, and world-class regulations to help position India as a global hub for hydrogen.
