New Delhi: The government has decided to move towards achieving 100 per cent electrification of railways, as part of efforts to curb carbon footprints, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said Wednesday.
The railways minister also said he has a mission that in next 10 years, Indian Railways will be running on renewable energy.
“We have decided to move towards 100 per cent electrified railway. We will be the world’s first large railways…nearly 1,20,000 km of track, which will be 100 per cent electrified. Imagine how much carbon we will reduce from the entire atmosphere,” Goyal said here.
He was speaking at CII’s Sustainability Summit.
He said more than half of the trains that come to New Delhi are still based on diesel but the ministry is working on their electrification.
“A year from now, more trains coming to New Delhi will be electrified..we are ensuring that all of them are end-to-end electrified,” he added.
The railway is taking various environment-friendly or energy-efficient measures to reduce carbon footprint and protect the environment.
In 2018-19, Indian Railways consumed about 20.44 billion units of electricity and 3.1 billion litres of high-speed diesel (HSD) for its energy requirement.
Further, he said, “I have a mission that in the next 10 years, Indian Railways will be a net zero…100 per cent electrified and 100 per cent renewable energy-driven railway”.
It is possible when one has courage of conviction, the minister said adding that start-ups have huge role to play this area.
Talking about bollywood movie ‘Mission Mangal’, Goyal said the move reflects the Indian ethos of keeping it simple and working on frugal resources and what one can achieve with little resources.
In ‘Mission Mangal’, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar plays the role of a scientist, who along with fellow colleagues spearheads India’s mission to send a spacecraft to orbit Mars.