Energy conservation is the word now, Southern Railway to harness alternative sources of power.
S Vishnu Sharmaa, INN/Chennai, @infodeaofficialYou want to go ahead in life, have an wholesome approach is a must, that is working on every aspect that can take you ahead. Southern Railway appears to be doing this. Geeing on speed for faster travel was what it did earlier, now it has turned its attention towards harnessing alternative sources of energy for its operation.
According to sources, Southern Railway is looking towards exploiting alternative energy sources for conducting its regular operations. It has established a wind power generation plant of 10.5 MW for this purpose. Sources further point out that installation work has witnessed completion and pre-commissioning tests have also been done on the plant.
Starting from 12 February, 16 hours of test has been done. The job of establishing this plant was given to Sujlone Energy Limited by Railway Energy Management Capacity Limited (REMCL). The cost for establishing the plant is Rs 66.7 crore which includes, generation and maintenance work for 10 years.
Samayanallur, Kovilpatti, Vanchi Maniyachchi, Virudunagar, Dindigal, Vaiyyampatti and Tiruchchirappalli are the stations that will be receiving the energy generated from this windmill. It is interesting to note that various measures adopted by Southern Railway have resulted in 6.29 percent energy consumption reduction this year, compared to the previous year.
Earlier, energy consumption used to be around 841.15 lakh units, now it has come down to 788.64 lakh units. There are other measures too that have saved energy for the prestigious establishment. According to figures from Southern Railway, about complete LED light installation was taken up across 735 railway stations. This is said to have resulted in energy saving of 79.8 lakh units.
Power related expenses every year also witnessed a reduction by Rs 6.48 lakh crore. The intention is to establish a four megawatt solar plant on the building and platform of 25 railway stations across Southern Railway which will reduce dependence on conventional power to a great extent.
Installation of LEDs did give a good benefit for us, said General Manager of Southern Railway R K Kulshrestha. About 100 LEDs were installed on 1243 buildings of railways, this resulted in conserving 17.47 lakh units of electricity and saving of of Rs1.373 crore rupees per year.
Electrification work of railway routes too is on full pace. Out of Southern Railway’s 5081 RKM, about 3081 RKM has been electrified. A distance of 131 km in Erode – Dindigul route and a distance of 151 km in Salem – Karur – Tiruchchirapalli route have been electrified in the last two years at a cost of Rs 350 crore in record time, he said.
These two routes are of good deal of importance for Southern Railway, as they are an important interconnection. Post work, connectivity improvement was seen in the routes of Chennai to Kanyakumari via Trivandrum and Madurai.
This year electrification work commenced in the 203 km route of Villupuram – Mailadudurai – Tanjavur at a cost of Rs 250 crore. A target of electrification of Tiruchchirapalli – Tanjavur (50 km), Tanjavur – Karaikal Port (103 km) and Villupuram – Cuddalore Port (50 km) routes has been set for 2019-20. We hope to complete this soon. R K Kulshrestha, GM, Southern Railway