Hydrogen is a pollution free fuel.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has said that on the next Independence Day, India's first hydrogen-powered train will be introduced, which will be indigenously manufactured and designed.

"India is capable of making the best trains in the world and the next big thing will be on August 15, 2023 when hydrogen-powered trains will be launched," the Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and IT said during an event here.

The world's first hydrogen-powered train was launched in Germany last month.

Hydrogen is a pollution free fuel.

In the program on Thursday, the minister said that a train made in the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Chennai has recently been included in the best five trains in the world.

He said that it ran at a speed of 180 kmph.

which surprised the world.

Referring to the Vande Bharat Express train, he said it took only 52 seconds to travel from zero to 100 kmph, while the famous bullet train of Japan took 55 seconds to do the same.

Vaishnav said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked engineers to build world-class trains that are safe, stable and have good speed besides consuming less energy.

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Cleanliness of railway stations was also being looked into and a satellite map was prepared to identify 132 district headquarter cities which required railway connectivity.

The Railway Minister said that a detailed project report is being prepared for this.

He said that the punctuality of trains in India is currently around 89 per cent, which needs to reach 100 per cent.

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