Draft notification on truck-trailers under consideration as Ministry explores alternative fuel mobility solutions
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India is likely to introduce a mandate for blending isobutanol with diesel later this year, a senior government official said.Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Multimodal Transportation and Logistics Summit in New Delhi, V Umashankar, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), said diesel blending is being examined “with great seriousness.He added that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is already undertaking research on isobutanol blending with diesel and the results have been encouraging.“It is quite likely that the blending mandate will start coming in somewhere later this year,” he said.According to Umashankar, diesel consumption in the country is nearly two times that of petrol consumption, and therefore the impact of diesel blending on energy security could be greater than petrol blending.Besides, the Ministry is also looking at bringing a draft notification on truck-trailers soon, he said.Explaining the rationale behind the proposal, Umashankar said the move is aimed at addressing concerns related to battery-swapping and battery-charging infrastructure for electric heavy-duty commercial vehicles.“If you have to look at battery swapping, then there will have to be several points which will have to be provided with this kind of infrastructure. If you look at battery charging, it is going to take a good amount of time,” he said.Accordingly, the Ministry is exploring what it termed as “tractor-trailer interchangeability”, under which the front portion of the truck can be swapped while the detachable trailer remains in place. Charging would take place separately at designated locations, he added.On hydrogen logistics, Umashankar said pilot projects undertaken by the government have shown encouraging results and that logistics costs are comparable with existing modes of transport.“The only high-cost element there is the hydrogen refuelling stations,” he said, adding that government support is currently being provided for pilot projects.He said hydrogen buses have recently been introduced on Delhi-Faridabad and Delhi-Noida routes after hydrogen refuelling stations were set up under the scheme. Notably, these buses can travel around 450 km on a single refuel.Furthermore, Umashankar said the government plans to expand the Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) tolling system across all four-lane and above toll plazas within the forthcoming year.The barrier-less tolling system has already been introduced at two toll plazas and a third is expected to go live within the next 8-10 days, he said.Additionally, he said that the Ministry is working on an advanced traffic management system for Delhi-NCR, with implementation expected to commence shortly after bids are issued.To improve average vehicular speeds on highways, the ministry is also focusing on expressways and access-controlled highways aimed at segregating slow-moving and fast-moving traffic, Umashankar added.Published on May 29, 2026
