New Delhi, Feb 03 (FN Agency) Indian Railways has decided to run 35 Hydrogen trains under “Hydrogen for Heritage” with an estimated cost of Rs 80 crores per train, a minister said on Friday. Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha said, the ground infrastructure of Rs 70 crores per route will be spent on various heritage and hill routes.
“Besides, IR has also awarded a pilot project for retro fitment of Hydrogen Fuel cell on existing Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) rake along with ground infrastructure at the cost of Rs 111.83 crores” he said. The Railways has planned Hydrogen trains to run initially on Jind–Sonipat section of Northern Railway. “Field trials of the first prototype on Jind –Sonipat section of Northern Railway is expected to commence in 2023-2024” he said while replying in Upper House. The Minister said, “the running cost of Hydrogen fuel based train is not established in IR scenario, it is estimated that the initial running cost of Hydrogen fuel train-set will be higher which will subsequently reduce with increase in the number of trains”. “Further, the use of Hydrogen as fuel provides larger benefits in the direction of green transportation technology to support zero carbon emission goals as a clean energy source,” he said. Speaking to the media in a post-budget press briefing, late in the day the Minister said the passenger reservation and ticketing systems of the Indian Railways will be revamped to improve capacities.
Vaishnaw said, “Currently, the IT systems of the Railways can process bookings for 25,000 tickets in one minute” “The plan is to augment this capacity to 2.25 lakh tickets per minute” he added. Ashwini Vaishnaw also announced that “Jan Suvidha” convenience stores will be constructed at 2,000 railway stations across the country. The Indian Railways receives four lakh ticketing enquiries a minute. “We plan to augment the capacity to take 40 lakh enquiries a minute,” The Minister said. In the Union Budget 2023, the Indian Railways has received an outlay of ?2.4 lakh crore. “For the next year, the target is to lay 7,000 km. “We are well on target to achieve the current year’s target of 4,500 km (at 12 km per day). Before 2014, the per day speed of laying tracks was only a third (4 km per day),” Vaishnaw added.