In a tremendous development, Indian Railways announced that it will launch its first hydrogen train this year. Mr. Anil Kumar Khandelwal, an incumbent Member (Infrastructure) of the Railway Board at the Ministry of Railways, speaking at the FICCI’s Future Rail India 2024, said that environmental sustainability is a key focus for the ministry. Mr. Khandelwal said, “Our first hydrogen train will be coming this year, and we are planning to launch about 50 by 2047.“
Mr. Khandelwal further stated that the country is likely to see its first bullet train operating by 2027. Such rapid expansion is crucial for Indian Railways’ ambitious plans to increase its share of the country’s freight market. Mr. Khandelwal explained, “Our total logistics market is about 5,000 million tonnes, out of which 1,600 million tonnes we carried last year. We plan to upgrade our infrastructure to take this figure by 2030-31 to 35% or 3,000 million tonnes.“
