Indian Railways to float ₹2,800 crore tender for procurement of 35 Hydrogen Trains

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The national transporter of India, Indian Railways is planning to float a tender for procurement of 35 Hydrogen-fueled trains under its "Hydrogen for Heritage" scheme soon. The estimated cost of this tender would be Rs 2,800 crore.

Indian Railways had held a detailed meeting with over half a dozen major railway technology players including Alstom, Siemens, Cummins, Hitachi Rail, BHEL, Wabtec Corporation and Medha Servo Drives this week and they have shown interest in design and manufacturing of these trains, which will be introduced on heritage routes.

According to officials, the meeting with the industry leaders was fruitful and they have given their views to expedite the plan. “After taking their inputs we will float the tender,” said an official.

Currently, Hyderabad-based firm Medha Servo Drives is undertaking the pilot project for the retro-fitment of hydrogen fuel cells on an existing Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) train. It will be the first prototype hydrogen train, which is likely to start operation on Jind—Sonipat route by this year.

Recently, the union railway minister Ashwini Vaishanw had informed in the Rajya Sabha that each hydrogen train would cost around Rs 80 crore and the ground infrastructure would require an investment of nearly Rs 70 crore per route on various heritage and hill routes. The ground infrastructure includes the setting of capacity of hydrogen fuel system.

Using hydrogen-fuel cells in the Railways will be a major step toward reducing pollution from trains as the gas is known to be the greenest transport fuel. Hydrogen can be generated easily by electrolyzing the water from solar energy.