Chennai, Sep 23 (PTI) US headquartered Mallawa Ventures Inc., has drawn up plans to invest about USD 1 billion (nearly Rs 8,000 crore) in Tamil Nadu to manufacture hydrogen-powered electric-buses by 2030, a top official said on Friday.

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The company is currently in the process of identifying land to set up the manufacturing units for producing the buses and the hydrogen cells on the outskirts of Chennai, Mallawa Ventures, President and CEO Raj Karan said.

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"We want to bring out hydrogen fuelled buses by 2030. The first set of e-buses will be launched in 9-12 months. The office will be headquartered in Chennai and we also want Chennai to be a hub for manufacturing such e-buses," he told PTI.

The company expects about 4,000 employees to be recruited in the initial phase at the facilities, he said.

"Our investment will be USD 1 billion (roughly Rs 8,000 crore)...the hydrogen fuel cell plant may require some investments...," he added.

While the first set of 12-metre buses are likely to be rolled out by 9-12 months, the company expects to reach production levels of 1,000-1,500 buses a year by 2030, he said.

The buses would be available in three variants of different floor heights -- 400 mm, 650 mm and 800 mm and would be able to ply between 350 km and 750 km per charge.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)