Railways to start hydrogen train trials in current financial year

05 May 2023 CW Team

Anil Kumar Lahoti, the chairman of the Railway Board, stated that work was progressing on the project to create the nation's first hydrogen train and that efforts were being made to begin its trial in the current fiscal year.

According to Lahoti, using hydrogen to power trains would be a significant "technological breakthrough" for the nation.

“The Northern Railway has already awarded the contract to develop the hydrogen train and work is underway on it,” he said.

Given that the development of a hydrogen train is new technology both internationally and for the nation, the Indian Railways is striving to execute the project efficiently rather than imposing particularly stringent deadlines, he said.

“We want the testing of hydrogen trains to start in this financial year in the country,” Lahoti said.

“Hydrogen train technology is still under development around the world. We will move ahead on this front as we learn this new technology,” he said.

According to Lahoti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously declared that 75 Vande Bharat trains will be operated throughout the nation, and the Railways is now operating three of these trains on average each month to carry out this plan.

The departmental meeting called to examine the ongoing rail projects in and around Indore was attended by the chairman of the Railway Board.

According to Lahoti, he evaluated projects for the wide gauge conversion of the Mhow-Khandwa rail line, the renovation of the Indore railway station, and other projects and gave the appropriate instructions to the officials to expedite the work.

Real Estate

05 Dec 2025

RBI Rate Cut Boosts Confidence Across Housing Market

Industry Context and Market DynamicsThe real estate industry has welcomed the RBI’s rate cut as a timely boost to affordability and demand. With home prices having risen steadily across major markets, even a marginal reduction in interest rates meaningfully strengthens purchasing power, especially for first-time and mid-income buyers.Ashish Jerath, President – Sales & Marketing, Smartworld Developers, observes:“The RBI’s 25-basis-point cut, bringing the repo rate down to 5.25%, is a timely boost for the real estate sector. Lower interest rates reduce borrowing costs, enabling homeb..

BMC Resumes Rs 170 Billion Road Works, Targets 80 per cent By Jan 2026

Following the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon in October, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has restarted work on 645 roads—covering 297.49 kilometres—under its large-scale concretisation programme. Data shows that more than 60 per cent of the resumed works are located in the western suburbs. Officials said the civic body aims to complete concretisation on 80 per cent of the roads where fresh work has begun by January 2026. Launched in 2022, the Rs 170 billion project seeks to concretise 700 kilometres of roads across Mumbai. All civil works were halted during the monsoon ..

India Pushes Digital Shift In Urban Land Mapping

The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) under the Ministry of Rural Development has convened a National Symposium on NAKSHA – the National Geospatial Knowledge-based Land Survey of Urban Habitations – to advance India’s transition to modern, technology-driven land mapping. Speaking at the inaugural session, Secretary Manoj Joshi underscored the urgent need to move revenue departments away from outdated, tape-based methods and rough hand-drawn sketches. He stressed that adopting latitude–longitude-based digital mapping and GIS-linked registration systems is essential for economic stabi..