The country’s first indigenous, hydrogen fuel cell inland waterway vessel reached Varanasi on Sunday evening. Under experts of Cochin Shipyard, trials to ply it on the Ganga will take place, a senior official of the Inland Waterway Authority India (IWAI), said.
The 24-meter, fully air-conditioned vessel has a capacity to carry 50 passengers. Its speed is 6.5 knots.
In February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s first indigenous green hydrogen fuel cell inland waterway vessel under the Harit Nauka initiative. The vessel is manufactured by the Cochin Shipyard marking a significant step to embrace clean energy solutions.
The IWAI official said that the experts of Kochi Shipyard will monitor the trials of the vessel on the Ganga, which will run for six months. Thereafter, there is a plan to operate it between Kashi and Praygaraj during the Mahakumbh.
The vessel is parked at Multimodal Terminal Jalhupur in Varanasi. Its interior decoration work will be done here, added the officials.
A team of IWAI officials inspected the vessel. During this, the captain of the ship and the assistant staff gave information about the vessel.
The captain said that this vessel can run at a speed of 20 to 25 km per hour. But the speed of the ship slowed down due to lack of water on Waterway-1 Haldia-Varanasi route.
On June 13, this ship reached Kolkata from the Cochin Shipyard.