Punjab: Solar shift for city railway station on cards

Posted by Ankit khatkar on January 27th, 2020

Ludhiana: At a time when the Ferozepur division of the railways has already started the task of fitting solar panels atop Jan Shatabdi running between Amritsar to Haridwar via Ludhiana to cut down on the huge electricity cost, the authorities are planning to adopt the solar model to power Ludhiana railway station and its buildings.

The process of installing solar panels on Jan Shatabdi will be completed by January 31, officials said. Jan Shatabdi will become the first train in the Ferozepur division which will go solar to run equipment in the coaches.

Officials said the authorities would soon begin the work of installing solar panels at Ludhiana railway station. With the help of a solar power plant, the railways would able to generate 2 MW of power to meet its daily consumption and provide electricity to different platforms at the railway station.

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The project would take another month to get the final shape. As of now, the railways pay Rs 25 lakh every month for the consumption of electricity, provided through the hotline of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited. Once the solar power plant gets fully operational, the bill will come down by about 60 percent, sources said.

Sources said, “Two years back, railways had finalized an idea to line up solar plants with a capacity of 500 MW to satisfy the energy needs of over 8,000 stations. Last year, Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) had first floated tenders of 67.38 MW of rooftop solar project and 32 MW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, which were supposed to power offices, buildings and railway stations of zonal railways,” sources said.

H K Sharma, the senior divisional electrical engineer, said, “As a pilot project in Ferozepur division, we have commenced work of installing solar panels atop Jan Shatabdi coaches. We will complete the task in the next few days.”

Electricity supplied by solar panels will light up 350 tube-lights and power 200 fans in the coaches, Sharma added.

“Besides, the work of installing solar photovoltaic cells on the rooftop of the main building of Ludhiana railway station will start soon. The project will provide electricity to offices, power cabin, and waiting halls,” the official said.

The divisional railway manager of the Ferozepur division, Rajesh Aggarwal, said, “In the initial stage, the electronics department of division is working on a few trains by shifting to solar energy. Once we know the results of the move, we will decide on the next stage to cover more trains as well.”