Vande Metro: What are hydrogen-powered trains, set to start on heritage routes?

New Delhi: After the successful rollout of Vande Bharat, the Year 2023 will see the launch of Vande Metro, government’s another ambitious project to modernize the Indian Railways.

Vande Metro is a set of hydrogen-powered trains that will replace the locomotive engines designed in 1950s & 1960s, mostly running on small & old routes.

The hydrogen powered trains will run mostly on heritage lines, mostly famous for toy train routes in Himachal & Maharashtra.

The USP of the project that this will be a network of entirely indigenously built trains and will take off by December 2023. The first designs of the trains would be made public by May & June this year.

The hydrogen-powered trains were recently launched in China.

With India rolling out Vande Metro, this will be India’s big impetus on harnessing the green hydrogen for locomotive mobility & reduce dependence on conventional system. Government has laid out intentions of developing India as a global hub for green hydrogen & associated technology for the world. If it succeeds, this will be another feat & achievements towards achieving the goals of climate change control.

What are routes on which Hydrogen trains will ply?

The Ministry of Railways has decided to run the hydrogen-powered trains on 8 heritage routes, as following :

Matheran Hill Railway, which has a length of 19.97 kms.
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway which has a length of 88.6 kms.
Kalka – Shimla Railway which has a length of 96.5 kms.
Kangra Valley Railway which has a length of 164 kms.
Bilmora Waghai Root which has a length of 62.7 kms.
Mhow Patalpani Root which has a length of 58 kms.
Nilgiri Mountain Root which has a length of 46 kms.
Marwar Devgarh Madriya Root which has a length of 52 kms.

By when, Vande Metro will start chugging?

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, speaking on the newest fleet of trains, said that India will look to manufacture the Vande Metro in large numbers.

Hydrogen-powered trains is the latest technology being adopted by global powers to combat climate change. India has been quick to adopt this technology.

In August last year, Germany introduced the hydrogen-powered trains for the first time. As these trains don’t produce noise and don’t add to high pollution levels, it has found itself on top priority areas of many governments.
For now, the hydrogen-powered trains are planned on those routes where difficult terrains restrict full electrification of the train project.