Indian Railways: India to get first-ever hydrogen train by 2023, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

India is building hydrogen-powered trains, and according to Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, they will be ready in 2023. Speaking at SOA University in Bhubaneswar, the Minister added that work on the Gati Shakti terminals policy is moving quickly and that Indian Railways is attempting to connect the country's distant and underserved areas with the railway network. Meanwhile, the world's first-ever fleet of Hydrogen-powered trains was tested in Germany and will be inducted into the country as the world's greenest train to replace around 14 diesel trains.

"The Vande Bharat Express, the Semi High speed and one of the fastest trains are developed indigenously with in-house technology in India, and the train has been running smoothly without any major breakdown for the last two years," the minister said, adding that more such Vandebharat express trains are being manufactured at ICF and will be put into service soon. Recently, Vande Bharat got a green signal from the Railway Safety Commissioner.

Talking about train and track management, the minister had earlier said, "Our focus is not only to make trains. We are also working hard on a track management system to run semi-high or high-speed trains. During a trial run of Vande Bharat, we already have shown that a fully loaded water glass has not shaken at the speed of 180kmph, but it shook the world."

Also read: IRCTC raises concerns over timing, route clash of Tejas and Vande Bharat trains: Report

Vaishnaw also informed that after the successful completion of the trial run of Vande Bharat, now, serial production of the rest of 72 trains will start soon."It is notable that the maximum speed of the third Vande Bharat train is 180 kilometres per hour. It reached 0-100 kmph in 52 seconds as compared to 55 seconds taken by the bullet train. The first generation Vande Bharat trains reach 0-100 kmph in 54.6 seconds and have a maximum speed of 160 kmph," he added. Currently, the two operational trains are between New Delhi-Varanasi and New Delhi-Vaishnodevi Katra. 

(With inputs from ANI)