Indian Railways Set to Introduce Hydrogen-Powered Train

India Railways has announced that it is working on development of a Hydrogen-powered suburban train and has issued an Expression of Interest for industry involvement, rail minister Piyush Goyal said.

“Hydrogen is planned to be sourced from industry in India. Hydrogen production is not planned by Indian Railways. The decision on deployment of hydrogen-propelled trains for long-distance routes will be based on the development of the technology,” Goyal said in a written reply in Parliament.

TATA Motors has developed seven hydrogen fuel cell buses which comply with International Safety Standards of Hydrogen Safety. Also, International Standards Organization, Society of Automotive Engineers and United Nations have published stringent safety standards for use of hydrogen in transport vehicles.

“Type test of these vehicles have shown that Hydrogen as a transport fuel is safe to handle and use. Similarly, safety aspects concern for passengers shall be an integral part of the technical specifications of the hydrogen-powered trains,” the minister said.

The move is part of the railways efforts at greening its fuel use. Indian Railways has by now fitted solar panels on roof top of Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) trains of capacity 4.5 Kilowatt for catering to hotel load.

Also, amalgamation of high speed diesel with 5 per cent Bio-diesel has also been underway for railway locomotives. The transporter has also started pilot projects comprising running DEMU trains with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) over 18 trains.