Department Of Science & Technology Invites Bids To Establish Hydrogen Valley Innovation Cluster

The Union government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) has now sought an Expression of Interest (EOI) to establish Hydrogen Valley Innovation Clusters in India. 

The department, through the tender, has asked the interested parties to bid to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the issue and take up the project. 

“The purpose of inviting a call for Expression for the preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) is to establish an overview of interested parties with relevant and sufficiently mature projects that can be included as stakeholder contributions to a joint consortium project for the development of the Hydrogen Valley Innovation Cluster. First, all submitted EoIs will be evaluated and ranked by the Evaluation Committee of DST. Then, selected EoIs will be invited to submit DPRs for the Hydrogen Valley Innovation cluster,” the tender document said.

The department said that a ‘Hydrogen Valley’ referred to a defined area where hydrogen serves more than one end sector or application in mobility, industry, and energy. “This typically covers all the necessary steps in the hydrogen value chain, from production (and often even dedicated renewable electricity production) to subsequent storage and its transport & distribution to various off-takers,” the note from the ministry said. 

DST said that the last day for the tender submission is May 4, 2023, while the last date for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) is July 2023. DST will call the successful bidders for presentation on August 2023, while the project initiation and formation of the concerned company will start in October 2023. 

The department said that industry partners willing to contribute financially to the funding through Private-Public Partnerships could do the same. DST will allocate up to Rs 30 crores or 50 percent of the total cost, whichever is lower based on the justified needs.

DST said that the interested parties could submit their bids online only by the end of May 4, 2023. It said that the DPR should include the timeliness by when the infrastructure and production would be operationalized. The period for the project has been fixed for five years, from 2024 to 2028.

The department has also made public detailed guidelines on the issue for better understanding.