Southern Railway increased biofuel blending in diesel from 5 per cent to 10 per cent in 2007. It proposes to increase this to 20 per cent.
Southern Railway engineers say the biggest obstacle in switching from diesel to biofuels is lack of sufficient used cooking oil or non-edible vegetable oil. Southern Railway manages to collect 750 litres of used cooking oil per month.
Apart from savings, use of biodiesel in Southern Railway locomotives has resulted in lesser wear and tear of engines. "They have increased the longevity of our engines," said Carmelus.
In addition to fuelling its locomotives on biodiesel, Southern Railway's fleet of support vehicles like jeeps, lorries and cranes run on varying levels of biodiesel. "We have a Tata Sumo that has been running on 100 per cent biodiesel for the last three to four years," said Carmelus. It also runs lorries, forklift truck and earthmovers on a petrol-biofuel mix of 80:20.
