Tarkesh Kumar Ojha, Kolkata
The entire emphasis of the Railways in getting the power requirement from various sources has come to a halt on the maximum use of solar energy. After lighting the stations with solar energy, a new effort is to run trains. For this, initiatives have been taken in many zones. East Central Railway is already taking serious initiative in this matter. For this, the plan of the Railways is to produce maximum electricity by installing solar panels on the vacant land of the railway so that the maximum requirement of the railways can be obtained from solar energy.
The new initiative is being taken on the Grand Card section of the Howrah-New Delhi rail route. Here too, the railways will set up a solar plant on the unusable land lying on the side of the track. The electricity received from here will be sent to the grid. After this it will be sent to Traction for train operation. For this, different places have been marked for installation of solar plants within a radius of about 200 km between Pradhankhanta to Bandhua station of Dhanbad Railway Division. Railways has given this work to Energy Management Corporation Limited so that it can plan and implement it.
Earlier, a large part of its requirement is generating electricity by installing solar panels at railway stations. Due to this, a large amount to be paid in electricity head to the railways is being saved. According to estimates, 100 MW of electricity will be generated every day in Dhanbad Railway Division. This will save railway revenue.
Railways is rapidly moving towards meeting the electrification target. The plan is to make the broad gauge fully electrified by 2023. Railways also aims to achieve the goal of zero carbon emission. In order to reduce carbon emissions and make maximum use of nature’s energy sources, the vacant land along the track is used to generate electricity by installing solar plants.
It is estimated that more than 51,000 hectares of land along the railway lines across the country will be used for setting up solar plants. The proposed plan aims to set up solar plants to generate up to 20 GW of solar power. A pilot project to run trains on solar energy has been started in Deewana in Haryana and Bina in Madhya Pradesh. It remains to be seen when this experiment will start on the Howrah-New Delhi rail route. Akhilesh Pandey, Public Relations Officer of Dhanbad Railway Division told the media that solar plants would be set up on the vacant land along the up line from Pradhankhanta to Bandhua. This will not only provide alternative energy for rail operations, but will also save the revenue of the railways. We will also take forward the plan of environmental protection.
It is known that 1.75 MW of electricity is being generated from the solar plant in Danapur division of East Central Railway. Work is underway to generate electricity by installing solar plates on the vacant land on both sides of the railway track for about 400 km between Deendayal Upadhyay station to Jhajha.