Railway Ministry has planned to electrify the remaining broad gauge routes on the network by the month of December 2023
Indian Railways bets big on electrification and renewable energy! The Indian Railways network will be completely electrified soon as Piyush Goyal-led Railway Ministry has planned to electrify the remaining broad gauge routes on the network by the month of December 2023. Recently, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal shared that the Railway Ministry has planned to source around 1000 megawatt (MW) of solar power as part of its solar mission and around 200 megawatt of wind power based on the techno-commercial assessment. Out of this power, around 204.82 megawatt, which includes 101.42 MW of solar and 103.4 MW of wind power, has already been set up on the network. Solar and wind power are renewable energy resources, which is being utilized by the Indian Railways network.
The planning for the electrification of the remaining broad gauge routes of Indian Railways network is as follows:
- In the year 2019-2020, a target of electrifying 6,000 km of broad gauge route has been planned
- In the year 2020-2021, a target of electrifying 6,000 km of broad gauge route has been planned
- In the year 2021-2022, a target of electrifying 6,000 km of broad gauge route has been planned
- In the year 2022-2023, a target of electrifying 6,5000 km of broad gauge route has been planned
- In the year 2023-2024 (till the month of December 2023), a target of electrifying 4,310 km of broad gauge route has been planned
Hence, Indian Railways has planned to electrify a total of 28,810 km of broad gauge route.
Additionally, in a bid to reduce the fuel burden of the Indian Railways network, the Railway Ministry has planned to install land based solar power plants across the country, over the unutilized railway land. This will be done to meet the energy requirements for both, non-traction as well as traction purposes.
