Until now only Germany has developed hydrogen-powered trains. This year Germany launched the world's first fleet of hydrogen-powered passenger trains. French company Alstom has developed 14 trains with hydrogen fuel cell drive at a cost of around $92 million.
Last month, India got its first indigenously developed Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus developed by KPIT-CSIR in Pune.
Speaking at SOA University in Bhubaneswar, the Vaishnaw also said that Indian Railways is trying to connect the remote and unconnected areas of the country with the railway network through its Gati Shakti terminals policy, and work on the policy is on the fast track.
"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 Vande Bharat Express trains are being manufactured at ICF and will be put into service soon.
Recently, Vande Bharat got a green signal from Railway Safety Commissioner.
Talking about train and track management, the minister had earlier said, "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."
Vaishnaw also informed that after the successful completion of the trial run of Vande Bharat, now, serial production of the rest 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.
At present, the two operational trains are between New Delhi-Varanasi and New Delhi-Vaishnodevi Katra.
