Electrification, water and paper conservation by Indian Railways a step towards protection of environment

Indian Railways (IR) is working in mission mode to become the largest Green Railways in the world and is moving towards becoming a “net zero carbon emitter” before 2030.

Railways is guided by a holistic vision of being an environment friendly, efficient, cost effective, punctual and a modern carrier of passengers as well as the freight in order to serve the growing needs of New India. IR is looking at helping the environment from massive electrification, day to day water & paper conservation to saving animals from being injured on Railway tracks.

Pace of Railway Electrification, which is environment friendly and reduces pollution, has increased nearly ten times since 2014. Railways has planned to electrify balanced Broad Gauge (BG) routes by December, 2023 to achieve 100% electrification of BG routes. This will facilitate elimination of diesel traction resulting in significant reduction in its carbon footprint and environmental pollution.

On Western Railway, the total track km electrified during 2014-21 is 1515 km in Gujarat, 279 km in Maharashtra, 623 km in Madhya Pradesh and 82.53 km in Rajasthan.

Electrification offers advantages like:

• Environmental-friendly mode of transport
• Reduced dependence on imported diesel fuel, thereby saving precious foreign currency and reduced carbon footprints
• Reduced operating cost
• Haulage of heavier freight trains and longer passenger trains with high haulage capacity of Electric Locomotives leading to increased throughput
• Increased sectional capacity by eliminating detention on account of traction change
• Reduced Operating and maintenance Cost of Electric Loco

Head on Generation (HOG): IR is also introducing Head on Generation (HOG) system, whereby electrical power is fed to the coaches directly from the Over Head Equipment (OHE) through the Locomotive. It eliminates the need for separate power cars in trains and thus reduces the need for pulling extra coaches and increases efficiency. There will be a reduction in Carbon footprint by 31,88,929 Ton per annum. There will also be a saving in fuel costs to the tune of Rs 2,300 crore due to elimination of power cars.

Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway stated that Western Railway has modified 96 LHB rakes and 2 Non-LHB EOG rakes to run on HOG system. In March 2021, the railway achieved Rs. 10.82 Cr in actual net savings by running 75 Special train pairs through HOG operations. The cumulative net savings on this account is Rs. 66.08 Crores during the financial year 2020-21 (April 2020 to March 2021) as compared to last year of 2019-20 (April 2019 to March 2020) is Rs.46.76 Crores, saw a 43.31% increase in net saving.