Indian Railways on mission mode of becoming a “Green Railway” by 2030

Ministry of Railways, with a goal of transforming Indian Railways into Green Railways by 2030 has taken a number of major initiatives towards mitigation of global warming and combating climate change. Railway Electrification, improving energy efficiency of locomotives & trains and fixed installations, green certification for installations/stations, fitting bio toilets in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy are parts of its strategy of achieving net zero carbon emission.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

Indian Railways has completed electrification of more than 40,000 Route km (RKM) (63% of BG routes) in which 18,605 km electrification work has been done during 2014-20.

Previously, only 3,835 km electrification work was completed during the period 2009-14. Indian Railways has fixed a target of electrification of 7000 RKM for the year 2020-21.

All routes on BG network have been planned to be electrified by December 2023. Indian Railways is focusing on electrification of last mile connectivity & missing links. With this in mind 365 km major connectivity work has been commissioned during COVID period.

Solar and wind energy to power the Railway electricity grid in a big way to India Railway.

100 MW of Solar plants have been commissioned on roof-tops of various buildings including 900 stations; 400 MW are under different stages of execution

In the Wind Energy sector, 103 MW wind-based power plants have already been commissioned; planned to set up 200 MW wind energy plants in next 2 years in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka

Total 505 pairs of trains have been converted to HOG, unleashing approx 70 million liter diesel/ Rs 450 crore per annum potential of saving.