Indian Railways To Go Electric By 2024 And Carbon Neutral By 2030

Indian Railways, with one of the world’s largest networks, has been acting as the lifeline for India’s transportation system. However, diesel locomotives have been a dominant cause of pollution. And the country’s Railways Ministry is planning to tackle this problem with some changes.

During a recent gathering, Piyush Goyal, the Railways Minister announced that by 2024, all the trains will be electric ones. And if everything goes according to plan, the network will be the first in the world to have such an achievement.

Goyal said:

But that is not the only ambition that the Indian Railways want to achieve. Piyush Goyal wants to completely eliminate emissions. And the minister mentioned that by 2030, the entire railway network of Indian will be a net-zero emission network.

He said:

And for this mission to be achieved, efforts are being made. Last year, the ministry made a world record for converting a diesel locomotive into an all-electric one in just 69 days. According to the team behind this achievement, the electrification saved 50 percent of the cost needed for the locomotive.

A Central Organization for Railway Electrification report suggests that the total savings for turning the entire network into electric one are expected to be Rs 81,000 crore by 2027. The report states that new technologies will play an important role in accelerating the electrification in the coming years.

Besides going electric, earlier this month, the railway company has already announced its plans on installing a video surveillance system that is internet protocol based. Now, it is reportedly having plans to deploy facial recognition software in some major stations by the end of 2020.

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