We cannot stress enough on Modi’s commitment to turn India and its peripheral power systems towards a greener switch. Two months back, we informed you of how for the first time, India is known to have invested more into greener initiatives than coal, the heart and soul of the production sectors.
Last year, we also brought to you the Indian Railway Organization for Alternate Fuels (IROAF)’ task of fitting train coaches with solar panels, which will power lights and fans inside coaches, in short for Indian Railways to shift to a greener area. Aspiring to become the world’s first ‘green railways’, Indian Railways has started to work for this initiative.
Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal spoke about the Modi government’s ambitious plan to make the national transporter environment friendly, which means the Indian Railways is planning to expand the use of solar energy.
Indian Railways To Turn ‘Completely Green’ By 2029
Speaking of the details surrounding this idea of turning fully green in the coming 10 years, Piyush Goyal kept forth the government’s proposal in Rajya Sabha. According to him the Railway is beginning to set up solar panels on unused railway lands.
This will not only protect the unused lands from being encroached but will also lead to power generations on these lands, which would be fed to the power grid. In a way, setting up of this initiative shall server dual purpose. Of course, all of these processes aren’t two-day work and will surely take time.
Piyush Goyal had earlier reported that Indian Railways plans to invest Rs 18,000 crore on solar power units along tracks. Goyal also said, that the Indian Railways was planning on electrification of tracks and using biodiesel to justify the ‘Green Railways’ project.
Shift to Electrification of Tracks by 2022
The Railway Ministry believes that the whole transport system wouldn’t be 100% ‘green’ until tracks aren’t electrified completely and the use of bio-diesel. Goyal assures that the government is working towards achieving 100% electrification of tracks by 2022.
According to records, in the year 2017-18, Indian Railways electrified 4,000 plus km of train tracks and in 2018-19 the distance went above 5200 km. The government is reducing the diesel cost inputs by fast electrifying its tracks on a large scale. He also revealed that the Indian Railways is planning to have every train come through electric traction that comes to Delhi. This might happen in the near future.
Greener Shifts in the Absolute Recent Past
A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) assured that renewable power investments in India exceeded those of fossil fuel-based power for the third year in a row and that spending on solar energy surpassed spending on coal-fired power generation for the first time in 2018, a greener feat could not have been achieved.
India is looking forward to investing $500 billion in creating renewable energy generation of 500GW by 2028, along with $250 billion investment in grid expansion and modernisation of green energy capacity.