Substantial carbon footprint reduction in railways: govt

Railways contribute to substantial reduction of carbon footprint than roadways, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said in a written reply.
Railways contribute to substantial reduction of carbon footprint than roadways as evident from the report on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth, published in 2014 by Planning Commission (NITI Aayog), he said.
According to the Planning Commission data, emissions from road sector was 123.55 million tons of CO2 while rail sector contributes 6.84 million tons of CO2 in 2007.
He said Railways has planned to reduce emission intensity by nearly 32 per cent in the year 2030 over the year 2005 by improving rail traction fuel and energy efficiency in freight traffic by 8 per cent to 13 per cent over 2013 and other efforts.

Sinha said technological interventions for improving rail traction efficiency include use of energy efficient designs of electric and diesel new locomotives and use of alternate fuels in traction such as compressed natural gas.
He said the strategies for strengthening the rail transport to increase intermodal share in freight traffic in the next 15 years include operationalising eastern and western dedicated freight corridors, substantial capacity augmentation and network expansion and upgrading the existing network including electrification.