Kalka, Shimla and Barog stations will be developed as hydrogen fuel stations to run hydrogen trains on the Kalka-Shimla railway section, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
These stations have been selected to run the country’s first hydrogen train. Plants will be set up at these stations to extract hydrogen from water and convert it into fuel.
A target has been set to run the hydrogen train on the Kalka-Shimla route by December this year. After the budget on Wednesday, Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav had also informed about this in his statement.
Indian Railways plans to operate hydrogen trains on its heritage routes. The Ambala division of Northern Railway is preparing for this for the last year.
The concerned officials have also conducted a survey of the Kalka-Shimla rail section regarding this. At present, diesel locomotives are operating on this rail section. Hydrogen is considered a clean fuel without pollution.
The use of hydrogen fuel results in zero emission of harmful gases and only water vapour, which is considered clean and eco-friendly in the green cover.
In the first phase, the government has decided to run the hydrogen train only on the narrow gauge track. Railways aim to convert diesel locomotives to hydrogen engines to provide green fuel-based trains.
Hydrogen-powered trains are planned to be introduced as train sets like Vande Bharat Express trains.
Special Train Reached Kalka from Chennai, Trial Allowed
A special train running in place of rail motor car on narrow gauge track has reached Kalka from Chennai.
Ambala Railway Division has also got permission from the Railway Board to conduct trial run of train set (high-speed train with three coaches without engine) between Kalka-Shimla.
The RDSO (Research Design and Standards Organization) team will start the trial of the rail set this month. first hydrogen train Kalka-Shimla track Stations selected