Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India, on Wednesday launched an advisory document titled “Bharat Zero Emission Trucking (ZET) Policy Advisory” at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe.

The Bharat ZET Policy Advisory document has been conceived as a dynamic document, outlining a comprehensive set of 30 policy interventions designed to accelerate ZET adoption in India.

Emphasising the importance of Zero Emission Trucks (ZET) for both decarbonisation and energy security, Prof Sood said, “The induction and wider adoption of ZETs require technical expertise and systematic policy interventions to create an enabling techno-socio-economic ecosystem in India.”

The proposed policy interventions are categorised into five key areas: incentives, regulations, infrastructure, business and financing, and stakeholder-centric initiatives.

Each policy intervention identifies a nodal agency responsible for implementation, a list of key stakeholders, its impact on the sector, and the methodology of policy formulation.

These recommendations will be further refined through extensive stakeholder consultations, including detailed cost-benefit and impact analyses by the concerned ministries, departments, and institutions.

The Vigyan Bhavan launch event was joined by Dr Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, Office of PSA; Mr Hanif Qureshi, Additional Secretary (Auto), Ministry of Heavy Industries; Mr Sudhendu Sinha, Adviser (Infrastructure Connectivity & E-Mobility), NITI Aayog; Prof. Shankar Ram, IIT Madras (Member, Consultative Group on e-Mobility (CGeM)); Mr M Ravi, Chief of Operations, Centre of Excellence for Zero Emission Trucking (CoEZET), IIT Madras; Ms Sharvari Patki, Program Head, Electric Mobility, World Resources Institute (WRI); and Ms Chandana K., Program Associate – Sustainable Cities & Transport, WRI.

The development of the advisory document was steered and guided by a Policy Advisory Panel (PAP) constituted by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor. A Project Management Unit was established at CoEZET, IIT Madras to draft the document.