Lok Sabha Question No. 250 (STARRED), answered on 2016-05-11
Subject: Go Green Initiatives
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: RAMDAS CHANDRABHANJI TADAS

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 250 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.05.2016

## GO GREEN INITIATIVES

- †* 250. SHRI RAMDAS C. TADAS:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Railways  has  undertaken  major  initiatives  to  Go Green and if so, the details of areas/activities identified;
- (b) the status of Go Green initiatives;
- (c) whether  the  Railways  is  considering  to  float  green  bonds  to fund its clean energy projects;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the objectives thereof; and
- (e) the other methods/techniques/technologies by which the Railways  is  likely  to  reduce  carbon  emission  and  generate clean energy?

ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI SURESH PRABHAKAR PRABHU)

- (a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 250 BY SHRI RAMDAS C. TADAS TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 11.05.2016 REGARDING GO GREEN INITIATIVES

- (a) Yes, Madam. The major initiatives undertaken by Railways to Go Green include following areas/activities:
- (i) Improvement in efficiency of Fuel and Energy consumption for traction purpose.
- (ii) Improvement  in  efficiency  of  Energy  consumption  for non-traction purpose.
- Use of renewable sources of energy viz. Solar and Wind
- (iii) energy.
- (iv) Use  of  Bio-diesel  and  Compressed  Natural  Gas  (CNG) as  alternate  fuel  in  place  of  High  Speed  Diesel  (HSD) for traction purpose.
- (v) Tree  plantation  to  increase  green  cover  in  Railway Premises under Zonal Railways and Production Units.
- (vi) Provision of eco-friendly bio-toilets in passenger coaches.
- (vii) Towards  better  Water  Management,  Water  Audits  at major consumption centers as well as proliferation of Water  Recycling  Plants  and  Rain  Water  Harvesting (RWH) Systems are undertaken.

## The status of these initiatives is given below:

- (i)
- An improvement of 29.9% and 1.5% has been achieved in  Specific  Energy  Consumption  (SEC)  for  Goods  and Passenger Services respectively from 2004-05 to 2013-
- (b)

14 in Electric Traction. Similarly, 16.5% improvement in Specific  Fuel  Consumption  (SFC)  for  Freight  Service Locomotives  and  16.6%  improvement  for  Coaching Service Locomotives has been achieved from 2004-05 to 2013-14 in Diesel Traction.

- (ii) Electrical Energy consumption for non-traction purpose has been  constant for the past 5 years, despite increase in the connected load, due to slew of energy conservation initiatives.

195  Energy  Audits  have  been  conducted  at  major Energy  consumption  centres  during  the  year  2015-16 for identifying the potential for Energy conservation.

Instructions have been issued for use of LEDs in new passenger coaches, Railway stations and buildings as well as use of energy efficient appliances and equipment over Indian Railways.

Such  energy  conservation  efforts  have  resulted  in Conservation

Railways getting 23 National Energy Awards during the year 2015.

- (iii) A total of 10 MW Solar Power Plant and 36 MW capacity of  Wind  Power  Plant  have  been  installed  over  Indian Railways up to March, 2016.
- Use of 5% Bio-diesel in diesel traction has commenced from  June,  2015.    Same  has  been  implemented  in  14
- (iv) Zonal Railways.
- (v) Use of 20% CNG along with HSD for traction purpose has commenced in 11 Diesel Electric Multiple Units.
- (vi) Nearly 40,000 hectares of Railway land is under afforestation. A total of about 180 lakhs of trees were planted during the last three years. In order to contribute  substantially  towards  Green  India  Mission, an  agreement  has  been  executed  between  Northern Railway and Forest departments of Punjab and Haryana states  on  02.05.2016  for  undertaking  plantation  of trees alongside the railway land boundary on both the sides  of  the  track.  Directions  have  been  given  to undertake  similar  exercise  in  other  Zonal  Railways also.
- (vii) 35000  Bio-toilets  have  been  fitted  in  coaches  up  to March' 2016.
- Water audit has been undertaken at 95 locations during the  last  year.  5  Water  Recycling  Plants  (WRP)  have been set up on Railways in the recent past. Works have already been sanctioned for setting up of WRPs at 40 locations. Railways have already installed RWH system at 2,200 locations so far including 326 locations during
- (viii) the last year.
- (c) There  is  no  such  proposal  to  float  Green  bonds  to  fund Railways' clean energy projects.
- (d)
- Does not arise.
- (e) The other methods/techniques/technologies by which the Railways are likely to reduce carbon emission and generate  clean energy are as under:
- (i) Augmentation  of  Railway  network-  Railways  is  more energy  efficient  transport  as  compared  to  roadways. As  a  continuous  process  Indian  Railways  has  been expanding the network. 813 KM of New Lines (NL), 967 KM of Doubling (DL) and 1042 KM of Gauge Conversion (GC)  was  done  in  2015-16.  Indian  Railways  as  an environment  friendly  mode  of  transport,  have  grown consistently  in  freight  as  also  in  passenger  segment which would otherwise have been carried by roadways, thus contributing to reduction of carbon emissions.
- (ii) Operationalising  3,376  km  of  Eastern  and  Western Dedicated Freight Corridors would reduce carbon emissions.
- (iii) Adoption of three phase technology with regenerative braking features for locomotives and Electric Multiple Units has potential to improve traction energy efficiency leading to reduction in carbon emissions.
- (iv) The  Technological  interventions  adopted  which  will improve traction fuel efficiency are :
- a. Provision of  Auxiliary  Power  Units  (APU)  on  diesel locos.
- b.
- Multi Genset locomotives.
- c. Common  Rail  Electronic  Direct  Injection  (CReDI)  / Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) system.

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