GreenLine, the Green mobility solutions provider, is planning a major expansion of its two-year-old logistics services operations, investing about ₹850 crore to add 1,000 liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks to its fleet in this financial year.
It will invest over Rs 4,000 crore to increase LNG truck deployment to 5,000 units in FY2015, while also exploring options for deployment of electric trucks on short-haul operations.
The company, part of the Essar Group, aims to decarbonize heavy trucking in India and is receiving widespread interest for its LNG-powered freight transportation from industrial players and corporates who themselves are moving ahead on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) vision and looking at scaling up greener initiatives.
“We are already running about 250 LNG-powered trucks that are managing logistics operations of our clients and plan to deploy 1,000 LNG-powered trucks by March 2024 making an investment of about ₹85 lakh for each truck,” GreenLine CEO Anand Mimani told reporters. He added that these numbers may go up by another 5,000 trucks by FY25.
“The plan for a second round of fleet expansion would be worked out only after we reach initial milestone of scaling up green truck deployment by March next year,” Mimani said.
At an average investment of about ₹85 lakh per truck (on-road price), the total investment for acquiring a fleet of 6,000 LNG trucks works out to over ₹5,000 crore. So far, fleet acquisition has been done through the company’s equity.
GreenLine’s fleet, including state-of-the-art LNG-powered trucks manufactured by Blue Energy Motors, reduces carbon dioxide emissions by up to 30%, SOx (sulphur oxides) by up to 100%, NOx (nitrogen oxides) by up to 59%, CO (carbon monoxide) by up to 70% and particulate matter by up to 91%, thereby enabling immediate emissions reduction from road logistics operations of corporate India.
“Our vehicles have also reduced noise by 30% in comparison to a diesel vehicle. So, we have put up a brand-new fleet of LNG trucks produced by our sister firm Blue Energy Motors (another Essar Green Mobility entity),” Mimani said.
The company has received positive response from its growing list of customers as reducing emission is very important for their balance sheets and investor relation portfolios as well, Mimani added.
Customers who have come into GreenLine fold include Dalmia Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement, Nestle, Delhivery, JSW, and JSPL.
“We are making all our customers go green at no extra cost than diesel as of today’s prices. Long term, logistics costs will also get reduced. But the first idea is to decarbonise logistics and ensure that India goes green,” Mimani said.
The LNG truck fleet of GreenLine comprises 55 tonne vehicles with a payload capacity of 40 tonnes. It has a 400 kg fuel tank that can take LNG worth around ₹35,000.
The range of Blue Energy vehicles is 1,400 km in one fill. GreenLine is hoping that with its sister firm Ultra Gas and Energy putting up 10 LNG retail stations across India by the fiscal end, deployment of these trucks could be expanded.
