Indian Railways plans to speed up Track Electrification

Indian Railways to Speed up Electrification, Save Cost

In order to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels the Indian Railways plans to speed up the track electrification efforts to more than triple for the year 2017-18.

The Indian Railways has been electrifying tracks at an average rate of approx. 1200 route Km per year during the 12th 5 year plan (2012-1017). This is now slated to reach around 4000 route Km for 2017-18.

Currently approx. 43% of Railways network is Electical (approx. 29,500 rKm). The Railways is aiming high and targetting electrification of another 22,000 rKm by 2021. It is expected to spend over Rs. 1 Cr per rKm of electrification. This is a great opportunity for the cable Industry – particularly EHV, HV, LV cables.

Railways currently spends approx Rs. 32,000 Cr on energy costs annually. Rs. 20,000 Cr of this is on account of energy from diesel. The increased electrification efforts are bound to greatly reduce energy costs for Railways.

Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE) based at Allahabad is the main organisation entrusted with carryout railway electrification over Indian Railways’ entire network. In order to speed up development of Electrified lines Indian Railways is awarding turn-key / EPC contracts and also entrusting electrification work to some of its subsidiaries like Indian Railway Construction Company and even to the country’s Grid development company – Power Grid (PGCIL).