PIB News Update:Indian Railways and Railway Energy Management Company Ltd. (REMCL – a Joint Venture of Ministry of Railways & RITES Ltd.) organized a Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet on 09th January, 2020 in New Delhi. The objective of the Investors’ Meet was to disseminate information about the opportunities available under renewable energy in Indian Railways. In the meet, experience of developers with Railways and key benefits of partnering with Indian Railways was showcased.
The Investors’ Meet was attended by leading financers and institutions including Department for International Development, Government of United Kingdom (DFID), Asian Development Bank (ADB), GIZ from Germany, AFD from France, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) as well as leading renewable energy organizations such as Softbank Energy, L&T, Renew Power, Sembcorp, Amplus Solar, SunEdison and Gensol. They shared their expectations of being partners in the journey of renewable energy of Indian Railways. The investors acknowledged the efforts of Indian Railways in leading the development of renewable energy in the country and expressed strong support to Indian Railways on the path of going green and achieving the net zero carbon emissions target by 2030.
The meet was chaired by Member Traction, Railway Board, Shri Rajesh Tiwari. In the meet, Shri Tiwari gave an overview of Railways’ power scenario and the opportunities for various stake holders in the renewable energy sector. Shri Tiwari mentioned about the steps being undertaken by Indian Railways to reduce the cost of power procurement and the benefits of signing PPAs with Indian Railways such as low off take risk and clarity on roof rights.
Chairman, REMCL, Shri Rajeev Mehrotra, CEO, REMCL, Shri Sudhir Kumar Saxena, Additional Member, Electrical, Smt. Manju Gupta and other senior officials of Railway Board were also present during the meet.
Indian Railways has recently invited bids for 47 MW rooftop solar projects and 249 MW of wind solar hybrid projects. This meet was supported under the Power Sector Reforms Programme, as a part of cooperation agreed in the MoU signed between UK’s DFID and Indian Railways on 2nd December 2019.