PIB News Update: Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal has informed that Ministry of Railways has planned to electrify balance Broad Gauge (BG) Routes of Indian Railways by December, 2023.
The planning for electrification of balance BG Routes of Indian Railways is as under:
| Year | Target
(Route kilometer) |
| 2019-20 | 6,000 |
| 2020-21 | 6,000 |
| 2021-22 | 6,000 |
| 2022-23 | 6,500 |
| 2023-24
(upto Dec-23) |
4,310 |
| Total | 28,810 |
Initially, Indian Railways (IR) has planned to source about 1000 Mega Watt (MW) Solar Power as part of its Solar Mission and about 200 MW of wind power based on techno-commercial assessment. Out of this, about 204.82 MW (101.42 MW solar and 103.4MW wind power) renewable power has already been set up.
In addition to above, to further reduce the fuel burden of IR, it has been endeavored to install land based solar plants across India on unutilized railway land for meeting its energy needs for both traction and non-traction purpose.