Mumbai, Feb 28 (IANS) The Central Railway’s Solapur Division has achieved 100 per cent electrification of its 976 kms rail lines, an official said here on Tuesday.
With this, the Solapur Division will save 3,116 kilolitres of diesel worth Rs 35.50 crore annually, entailing carbon footprint reduction of 8,268 tons on the Kurduwadi-Latur section.
The first section electrified here was the 73-km long Manmad-Puntamba-Sainagar Shirdi in August 2014, and the last non-electrified section was the 52-km long Ausa Road-Latur Road section that was also electrified last week.
The Central Railway said that Indian Railways is working on a mission mode to become the largest Green Railway network in the world and rushing to become a ‘net zero carbon emitter’ before 2030.
Accordingly, the pace of railway electrification, which is eco-friendly and reduces pollution, has increased nine times since 2014.
The Indian Railways has planned electrification of the broad gauge routes to eliminate diesel traction that would lead to significant reduction in its carbon footprint environmental pollution.
Besides being eco-friendly, electrification comes with several advantages like reduced dependence on imported diesel and savings in foreign exchange, lower operating costs, haulage of heavier freight trains and longer passenger trains with high haulage capacity of electric locomotives, etc.
–IANS
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