Suresh Prabhu unveils Mission 41k energy plan for Railways

In a  bid to revamp the Indian railways, Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday unveiled Mission 41k, a plan that would save Rs 41,000 crore over 10 years through an integrated energy management system, reported Livemint.

In this initiative, railways will electrify 24,000 km of rail tracks over the next five years by doubling the annual rate of electrification from 2,000 km to 4,000 km in the next two years.

The railways will award contracts on engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) model for railway electrification projects, to achieve this target. It also plans to mechanise the execution through self-propelled wiring trains among other initiatives.

“Railways has already saved Rs 300 crore during 2015-16 and Rs 1,000 crore till November 2016. We hope this year the savings would be around Rs 1,800 crore through energy management,” said a railway ministry official, requesting anonymity.

Under Mission 41k, change in the carrier’s energy mix by using more green energy through 1,000 megawatt (MW) solar and 200MW wind plants, installation of LED lights and bulbs across all railway stations, trains and offices are also included.

“If consumption of only one class of fuel grows, it will lead to skewed development of the energy mix,” said B. Ashok, chairman of Indian Oil Corp., the country’s largest oil marketing company.

Indian Railways spent Rs 31,220 crore on energy in 2014-15, which includes expenditure of Rs 10,436 crore towards electric traction. This carries about two-thirds of the total freight and about 50 per cent of passenger traffic; Rs 18,586 crore towards diesel and Rs 2,198 crore towards supply of electrical energy to various offices, workshops and railway stations, etc.

Mission 41k comes as railways hopes a six-fold increase in its passenger and freight traffic by 2030. The passenger and freight traffic on the railways in India is expected to grow from 3.64 trillion passenger kilometers and 961 billion tonne kilometres respectively in 2005 to 19.4 trillion passenger kilometres and 6.68 trillion tonne kilometres, respectively by 2030.