New Delhi, July 17 -- NEW DELHI - Three months ago, the 90-kilometre stretch of rail linking Jind and Sonipat looked like any other unremarkable commuter line in the flat plains of Haryana. On Friday, it became the corridor where India entered a five-nation club that neither diesel nor electric trains could unlock.

NaMo is an abbreviation of the prime minister's first and last names, a branding decision that broke with the neutral identifiers Indian Railways has historically applied to its flagship projects.

The inauguration places India alongside Germany, which launched the world's first hydrogen passenger fleet in 2022, Japan, China, and the United States as the fifth country to put hydrogen-powered trains into revenue service. Each o...