Indian Railway to become energy self-reliant by 2030

Contributing towards National Solar Mission, Indian Railway under the chairmanship of Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal is all set to become self-reliant and self-sufficient in terms of energy for all its operational work by 2030.

Objective

World’s fourth-largest rail network spreading over 1,23,236 km, with 13,452 passenger trains and 9,141 freight train Indian railway uses huge energy for its operation as such a large scale. Currently, the Indian railway requires around 21 billion units of energy annually. The major source of energy is electricity and diesel. The ministry has developed a mega plan for installing solar plants of 20 Gigawatt capacity on its vacant land by 2030. Once installed the railway will use solar energy solely for all its energy consumption making it the world’s first transport organization to be energy self-sufficient. The said move will make railway green as well as Atma-Nirbhar. The proposed plan will generate more than 33 billion units of energy, way more than the current requirement.

National Solar Mission

Launched on 11 January 2010 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the objective of establishing India as a global leader in solar energy. The mission was launched with a target of obtaining 20GW of solar energy by 2020 which was later increased to 100 GW by Modi government in the 2015 Union Budget of India. The original target of 20 GW has already surpassed in the year 2018 four years early than the deadline.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2020