In the recently concluded COP26 meet at Glasgow, India – the third largest global emitter of greenhouse gases had pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 in its ambitious environment plans. In line with that, the Indian Railways – which in terms of size is the fourth largest railway network in the world – has also pledged to electrify all tracks and zero-carbon emissions by 2030. Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that all efforts have been taken to achieve the target by exploring maximum usage-renewal energy and completing
According to reports, as of April 2021, nearly 48,881 km of tracks have already been electrified while solar panels have been installed on the roofs of more than a thousand railway stations, to utilize renewable energy sources rather than carbon-based fuels. The Railways are a huge network – an estimated 8,479 trains and some 2,93,077 wagons run daily, transporting 24 million passengers and 3.3 million tonnes of cargo. If the mega electrification project is realized as planned, the railways will not only achieve lower carbon emissions but also massive amounts of revenues that it spends on operational fuel, like it used 115.45 lakh kilolitres of high-speed diesel between 2014-15 and 2018-19.
In a Multi-Pronged Approach of the Railways towards its greener initiatives, the sources reveal that steps like replacing conventional lights with LED and installing solar energy panels to meet the energy requirement for non-track works have already been started. A further plan to install infrastructure to supply 20 gigawatts of solar energy for all purposes of the railways has also been made, it revealed. A solar plant in collaboration with Bharat Heavy Electrical s Ltd (BHEL) has been set up in Bina, Madhya Pradesh in July 2020 with a generating capacity of around 1.7 MW and will be supplying power directly to overhead lines. Another with the capacity of 2.5-MW has come up in Diwana, Haryana, with state transmission unit connectivity, while the third project with a capacity of 50 MW has been initiated in Bhilai.