India’s first home-built hydrogen train runs on locally produced green hydrogen

On 17 July 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the “NaMo Green Rail” at Jind railway station in the northern Indian state of Haryana — the country’s first hydrogen-powered train designed and built in India. With the launch, India joins the small group of countries, including Germany, China, Japan and the United States, that have deployed or tested hydrogen trains in regular service.

The most powerful hydrogen train propulsion yet

The ten-coach trainset consists of two hydrogen driving power cars and eight passenger coaches, with capacity for around 2,600 passengers. Each power car delivers 1,200 kW, giving the train a combined propulsion capacity of 2,400 kW — described by Indian officials as the most powerful hydrogen train system in the world. The train runs at an operational speed of 75 km/h (design speed 110 km/h) on the 89-kilometre Jind–Sonipat section of Northern Railway.

The technical specifications were drawn up by India’s Research, Design and Standards Organisation, and the railway ministry emphasised the train’s indigenous development — although senior officials acknowledged that some key components, including the fuel cells, were imported. The onboard proton exchange membrane fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity, with water vapour as the only direct emission.

The real Power-to-X story: the fuel

As with Stadler’s Flirt H2 in Italy, the train is only the visible part of the project. For Power-to-X, the more significant news is the supply side: a dedicated hydrogen plant at Jind produces the fuel by electrolysis — the key element of green hydrogen generation — with a storage capacity of 3,000 kg. Indian Railways describes it as the country’s largest railway hydrogen storage and refuelling facility.

Producing hydrogen by electrolysis directly next to the refuelling point avoids long-distance hydrogen logistics — a pattern we expect to see repeated wherever hydrogen mobility scales: renewable electricity converted into H₂ close to where it is used.

Safety, scale-up and the diesel question

Hydrogen requires specialised storage, leak detection, ventilation and automatic shutdown systems. The storage and supply system at Jind has been approved by India’s Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation and independently assessed by TÜV SÜD of Germany.

The pilot is part of Indian Railways’ “Hydrogen for Heritage” programme, which envisages 35 hydrogen trains on heritage and hill routes. The logic mirrors Europe’s: India’s rail network is already heavily electrified, so hydrogen targets the remaining niches — non-electrified, heritage and difficult-to-electrify routes where it can replace diesel traction. That makes the project a building block in India’s push to defossilise transport on its way to net-zero emissions by 2070.

For Switzerland, the takeaway is less about the train itself and more about the system design: co-locating electrolysis, storage, refuelling and rolling stock in one pilot is exactly the kind of integrated Power-to-X demonstration that turns technology readiness into operational experience.

Sources: TechXplore / AP, Press Information Bureau of India

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