Indian Railways to power 4,000 locomotives with alternative fuel

Move aimed at decreasing diesel import, curbing pollution

Indian Railways has decided to power a fleet of 4,000 locomotives with alternative fuels such as bio-diesel, as part of its initiative to spread awareness about a clean environment and decrease the dependence on diesel.

“Indian Railways is the single-largest bulk consumer of diesel in the country and as mentioned in Railway Budget 2014-15, it will start using bio-diesel up to five per cent of the total fuel consumption in diesel locomotives. This will save precious foreign exchange substantially,” said Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda at the Bio-Fuels 2014 conference organised by the Bio-Diesel Association of India.

Diesel locomotives cater to a large segment of rail traffic in the country, hauling both passenger and freight trains. Indian Railways consumes two billion litres of diesel every year. For this, the Railways have to foot a bill of Rs 15,000 crore yearly.

Indian Railways has also set up Indian Railways Organization for Alternate Fuels to promote bio-diesels and other environmentally benign alternative fuels. It has also been given the mandate to facilitate setting up of transetherification facilities to convert plant residues into bio-diesels. These facilities could be set up in India in the public-private partnership mode.

Speaking at the conference, Manoj Sinha, minister of state for railways, said to generate interest in bio-diesel, adequate quantities of bio-diesel will have to be made available at competitive rates. To achieve this, a raw material supply-chain needs to be set up, he said.