Railways solarises more than 960 stations; 550 more stations to get rooftop solar panels

New Delhi: In order to achieve its objective of becoming 100 percent self-sustainable for all its power needs and also to contribute to national solar power goals, the Indian Railways has solarised more than 960 stations till date, the Ministry of Railways said on Monday. Orders have been placed for 198 MW solar rooftop capacity for 550 stations which are under execution.

It may be noted that Indian Railways had recently organised a meet of leading solar power developers who had shared their expectations of being partners in the journey of Indian Railways to become a "net zero carbon emitter" before 2030. Indian Railways is set to produce solar energy for meeting all its energy consumption needs of more than 33 billion units by 2030. The current annual requirement is about 20 billion units.

Indian Railways has a mega plan for installing solar plants of 20 GW capacity by utilising its vacant land by 2030. Some of the stations solarised are Varanasi, New Delhi, Old Delhi, Jaipur, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Howrah etc.

Also Read: Railways plans to set up 20 GW RE capacity on surplus land: Piyush Goyal

About 51,000-hectare vacant land is available with the Indian Railways and the government is now ready to extend all support to developers for installing solar power plants on Railway's vacant un-encroached land. It may be noted that Railways is also set to achieve 100 percent electrifications by the year 2023.

It may be noted that Indian Railways is committed to utilising solar energy for meeting its traction power requirement and become a complete 'Green mode of transportation'. This is in line with the recent directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to solarise railway stations and utilise vacant railway land for Renewable Energy (RE) projects.

The use of solar power will accelerate the 'Railways' mission to achieve the goal of becoming a 'Net Zero Carbon Emission Railway.' In order to achieve this, the Indian Railways has developed a mega plan for installing solar plants of 20 GW capacity by utilising its vacant land by 2030.

In this regard, to begin with, bids for 3 GW solar projects, on vacant Railway land parcels and land parcels along the railway track, have already been invited by Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a PSU of the Indian Railways. These solar projects, besides supplying power to Railways at reduced tariff, will also protect the Railway land by the construction of boundary walls along the tracks.

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