Five years after New Delhi set the trend by introducing CNG in public transport, it will become the first city to install a hydrogen-dispensing station.

By year-end, at least five vehicles already sitting in an Indian Oil Corporation R&D centre will start plying on CNG blended with 10% hydrogen (HCNG) on Delhi’s roads. This blend will facilitate the entry of a fuel source that has become the veritable Holy Grail in the quest of a green, zero-emission fuel.

Hydrogen is widely accepted as the fuel of the future — the US government’s annual spend on hydrogen research is $1.2 billion to help reduce its dependence on foreign oil as well as emission of greenhouse gases.

Last November, the Central government unveiled a roadmap prepared by the Hydrogen Energy Board, headed by Ratan Tata, to put 1 million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on the country’s roads by 2020 through public-private initiatives.

IOC pledged Rs 100 crore to a hydrogen fuel initiative to develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to run cars, trucks, homes. A year later, they have come out with two three-wheelers by Mahindra and Mahindra and Bajaj, one Ambassador car and two mini buses by Eicher and Tata that can run on this blend.

These vehicles are already running in the IOC research campus in Faridabad and will start operating once the first hydrogen dispenser comes up at Delhi’s Lodhi Road costing Rs 5 crore.

It will dispense both the blend and pure hydrogen, preparing for a future when vehicles running on pure hydrogen make their shift from research labs to Delhi roads.

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