PIB News Update: Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal has informed that Based on Budget announcement for 2020-21, a Committee has been formed under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, which includes representative from Ministry of Railways also, to work out the modalities of Kisan Rail.
Ministry of Railways is planning for installation of solar panels on unutilized Railway land for meeting its energy needs for both traction and non-traction purpose. So far, a total of 3 MW has already been set up on railway’s unused land. Further, action taken for installation of Solar power projects on unused Railway land are as follows:
- 50 MW at Bhilai through Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) in South East Central Railway
- 1.7 MW at Sukhi Siwania in West Central Railway
- 2 MW at Diwana in Northern Railway
The solar power so generated, shall be evacuated to proliferate either by connecting it to Grid or feeding it directly to 25 Kilo Volt (kV) Alternating Current (AC) Traction System.
In addition to above, IR is further planning to proliferate land based solar power on unused vacant Railway land having no commercial value or future infrastructure requirement once above pilot projects are commissioned successfully. Blue Print for implementation of the project on larger scale is still under preparation.