After China rolled out Asia’s first hydrogen trains, widely touted as the ‘world’s greenest trains’, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav reiterated that the Indian Railways will start indigenous hydrogen-powered trains by December 2023. Will do While the minister had earlier confirmed the timeline. On several occasions, for the first time, he said hydrogen trains would run on his narrow gauge heritage routes by December, making them “completely green”. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said on Tuesday that the trains would be on the lines of China and Germany.
As a pilot project, the Railways is preparing a prototype of a hydrogen fuel based train at the Northern Railway Workshop. It will be tested on the Sonipat-Jind section of Haryana. Vaishnav said, “We will start hydrogen trains on heritage routes from December 2023. This will mean that these heritage routes will become completely green.”
Meet China’s first semi-high-speed hydrogen train with a range of 600 km: in pictures
Around the world, hydrogen-powered engines are used in a bid to replace diesel-powered engines where full electrification is difficult or too expensive as it provides an emissions-free, quieter alternative that can be economically competitive. Is.
Germany’s Coradia iLint is the world’s first passenger train powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, which produces electrical power for traction. This zero-emission train emits a low level of noise, with the only exhaust being steam and condensed water. This train can run 1000 km at a speed of 140 km per hour. This train was being tested in Germany since 2018.
China has also recently launched Asia’s first hydrogen-powered train for urban railways. As per reports, it gets a range of 600 km on a single tank, with a top speed of 160 kmph.
The heritage routes of Indian Railways, which run mainly on diesel are Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Kalka Shimla Railway, Matheran Hill Railway, Kangra Valley, Bilmora Waghai and Marwar-Deogarh Madaria. All narrow are gauge.
with PTI inputs