Companies that participated in a meeting to supply solar power to Indian Railways at a lower tariff include Adani, ACME, NTPC, Renew Power, Hero Future Energies, Greenko Group, Azure Power, Tata Power, Avaada, SPRNG Energy, Vikram Solar, according to Railways’ official sources.

These solar projects are designed in such a manner that, besides supplying power to Railways at reduced tariff, they will also protect the Railways’ land by construction of boundary wall along the track.

In the meeting chaired by Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal, the Minister pointed out that Indian Railways is willing to extend all support to the developers for installing solar power plants on Railway’s vacant un-encroached land.

Boundary wall along the track will be constructed and maintained by developers which will also help in preventing trespassing on tracks, according to an official statement.

In this regard, bids for three GW solar projects on vacant Railways’ land parcels and land parcels along the railway track have already been invited by Railway Energy Management Company Ltd, a PSU of Indian Railways, stated a release.

‘Net zero carbon emission’ mission

The use of solar power will accelerate Goyal’s mission to achieve conversion of Indian Railways’ to ‘Net Zero Carbon Emission Railway’. In order to achieve this, Indian Railways has developed a mega plan for installing solar plants of 20 GW capacity by utilising its vacant land by 2030.

This is in line with the recent directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to solarise railway stations and utilise vacant railway land for Renewable Energy (RE) projects. It will also contribute towards the National Solar Mission, an initiative of the Government of India to promote solar power, added the official statement.

As a follow up, the Ministry of Railways has decided to provide solar power plants on its vacant land on a mega scale. A pilot project of 1.7 MW capacity with direct connectivity to 25 KV traction system has been successfully operationalised in Bina.

Additionally, a solar plant of 3 MW capacity has also been commissioned at Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareilly for non-traction applications. Two more projects are under progress – one at Diwana for 2 MW and another at Bhilai for 50 MW capacity for connectivity with State Transmission Utility (STU) and Central Transmission Utility (CTU), respectively, it said.

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