Rail budget gives green light for solar power, clean fuels

The Indian railways took a step towards becoming green on Thursday, with rail minister announcing a slew of environmentally friendly measures — from the generation of 1,000 MW of solar power to running more trains on cleaner fuels like CNG.

Updated on: Feb 27, 2015, 24:50:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Indian railways took a step towards becoming green on Thursday, with rail minister Suresh Prabhu announcing a slew of environmentally friendly measures — from the generation of 1,000 MW of solar power to running more trains on cleaner fuels like Compressed Natural Gas.

Prabhu, who was environment minister in the last NDA regime, has also set up a special cell — Environment Directorate — to improve green practices in the railways, which primarily run on fossil fuels. “To reduce dependence on fossil fuels, it is intended to expand sourcing of solar power for railways,” Prabhu said, in his budget speech.

He added that the railway would adopt LED lights and appliances as part of the energy conservation drive.

“A detailed energy audit will reveal huge potential for energy saving,” he said, adding that the railways — the biggest energy consumer in India — has a huge potential to save energy.

Another green component in his speech was the introduction of bio-toilets. “So far, we have replaced the existing toilets with 17,388 bio toilets. This year we intend to replace another 17,000 toilets,” he said.

Prabhu’s budget saw the railways venturing into newer environmental areas — reducing noise levels in wildlife areas. “We will demonstrate our sensitivity to the wildlife by factoring in concerns related to their environment,” he said. In the past, the ministry had announced plans to build access points for wildlife to cross without hindering rail traffic.

Prabhu also touched on the water conservation mission of the railways, and said after an audit, water recycling plants will be set up at major water consumption centers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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