Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of state for railways, declared that by August 15, 2023, India would begin operating its own hydrogen-powered trains. The first train of its kind will be meticulously developed, produced, and assembled domestically. The next big thing, according to Vaishnaw, will be the hydrogen-powered train, which will be introduced by India’s next Independence Day in 2023. “Recently, India has built trains that are among the best in the world. When it launched the first hydrogen-powered train in history last month, only Germany has so far been able to do so.
The cost of the Germans’ addition of 14 hydrogen fuel cell-powered trains to their fleet of trains was approximately $92 million. As a result, major economies all over the world have begun their own efforts to popularise hydrogen-powered trains because the fuel is environmentally friendly and helps achieve the goal of having no net carbon emissions. Vaishnaw used the example of the Vande Bharat Express train, which is made entirely in-country, to illustrate how Indian railway has improved its knowledge and capacity to construct cutting-edge trains that are competitive with some of the best trains. According to him, during recent tests, the train took only 52 seconds to accelerate to 100 km/h from a stop, compared to 55 seconds for the famed Japanese Bullet train to do the same.
The head of the railway company also mentioned that one of the top five trains in the world recently were trains made at Chennai’s Integral Coach Factory. The train was discovered to be superior to many world-class trains after being examined on a number of different parameters. A glass of water left in the driver’s cabin, for instance, remained unbroken even when the train was moving at its top speed of 180 km/h, demonstrating its stability.In terms of improvement and overall experience, the railways have also been trending upward, similar to how the national highway system has improved. Indian trains, which were infamous for being late, now have a punctuality rate of 89 percent.
The addition of trains that run on a clean energy source will undoubtedly be a boon as the railways have recently improved significantly. Earlier, Nitin Gadkari had also started a pilot project for running cars on green hydrogen.