Taking forward the Railways’ green initiative, Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announced the setting up of the Railway Energy Management Company (REMC) to harness potential of solar and wind energy.
To encourage more use of agro-based and recycled paper, the Railways would also ban use of plastic in catering, he added said.
It may be recalled that 2011-12 was declared as the ‘Year of Green Energy’ by the then Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee. In the subsequent Budget (for 2012-13), the then Minister Dinesh Trivedi also announced a slew of measures to promote clean environment.
Treading a similar path, Bansal has spelled out some of the new steps on the green energy front in his Budget for 2013-14.
However, the latest Budget did not spell out how much the Railways proposed to spend on the green initiatives, and whether the funding would be done internally. Officials in the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy said for some of the solar projects, the Railways had interacted with them.
The Budget proposes setting up of 75 MW windmill plants and energising 1,000 level crossings with solar power. It also talks about deployment of new generation energy efficient electric locomotives and electrical multiple units (EMUs) saving about 60 crore units in 2011-12.
Presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Parliament on Monday, Bansal said he proposed to set up a Chair at The Energy Resources Institute to promote railway-related research to reduce the country’s carbon footprint.
In fact, the Railway Budget 2012-13 had also proposed setting up of 72 MW capacity of windmill plants in the wind-rich areas of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.