Railways puts electrification on track

For every 100 kilometres electrified, the Indian Railways saves an estimated four million litres of diesel, worth Rs 2,500 crore, annually.

For every 100 kilometres electrified, the Indian Railways saves an estimated four million litres of diesel, worth Rs 2,500 crore, annually. The gravity of these figures finally appears to have dawned upon the Railway Ministry, which is now going all out to put more and more route kilometres under electric traction.

As a first step in this direction, the Railways will electrify 2,525 route kilometres during the first year itself of the 11th Five Year Plan starting April 2007. This is significant compared to the total electrification target of 1,800 route kilometres for the entire 10th Five Year Plan.

‘‘Railway electrification is a thrust area for us now. With oil prices escalating constantly, bringing more track kilometres under electrification is the way forward,’’ says Ramesh Chandra, Member (Electrical), Railway Board. ‘‘We would electrify about 1,406 route kilometres within the first year of the next five-year plan. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd has been entrusted with the electrification of another 1,119 route kilometers,’’ he adds. The ministry plans to more than double its five-year target for the next plan.

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The Railways spends close to Rs 5,400 crore on oil annually. There is a feeling in Rail Bhawan that considering pure economics, electrification is the path to be pursued. Studies conducted by the ministry have shown huge cost differences between trains running on diesel and electricity on same routes. ‘‘The cost difference between a Delhi-Mumbai train running on diesel and electrification works out to Rs 3 lakh per trip. Running a pair-train on electricity saves us Rs 6 lakh a day,’’ says a senior official.

To add to this, electric trains have higher average speeds reducing the journey time considerably. ‘‘Higher speeds ensure that the more trains can be run on the same track,’’ says Chandra.

Currently, only 27 per cent of the tracks are electrified in India with only 17,280 route kilometres out of total 63,221 under electric traction. The major electrified routes include Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore and Delhi-Ambala-Ludhiana.

Despite this, around 61 per cent of freight and 49 per cent of passenger traffic on the Indian Railways are carried on the electrified routes of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah alone. It takes around Rs 50 lakh per route kilometre for a double-line to be electrified.