Indian Railways aims to bring down carbon emission to zero by 2030: Piyush Goyal

The Indian Railways has set a target of bringing down carbon emission to zero by the end of 2030, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday, August 26. The Union Minister also said that India will have 100 per cent electrified train network by December 2023. The first railway of this scale in the world will be diesel-free and 100 per cent electric, he added.

"By 2030 we will be a net-zero railway, our carbon emission will be zero. Indian Railways transports nearly 8 billion passengers and 1.2 billion tonnes of freight every year. Ours will be the world's first railways of this scale to go green," Goyal wrote in his tweet.

'100 per cent electrified by December 2023'

"The railways have a mission to be 100 per cent electrified by December 2023. We will have 100 per cent electrified train network by December 2023, the first railway of this scale in the world which will be diesel-free, 100 per cent electric," Goyal said.

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The Union Minister further said that the centre plans to use the land along the tracks to generate 20 gigawatt of clean energy and the solar power equipment used for this purpose will be 'made in India'. Last year, while announcing the railway electrification goal, Union Minister had said the centre would shut down old coal plants. The experts in this matter have maintained that the average speed of trains will also rise by 10-15 per cent when the railways achieve 100 per cent electrification of its network.

India has the fourth-largest rail network in the world after the US, Russia, and China with 67,368 km of tracks and with nearly 7,300 stations, as per government data. According to a report by the government's think tank NITI Aayog, Carbon emission from the Indian Railways was 6.84 million tonnes in 2014.

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Indian Railways Introduces Rail Bicycle For Staff 

Recently, the Indian Railways has introduced a new innovation called the ‘Rail Bicycle’ in a bid to help the staff in daily inspection, monitoring, and track repair. Civil engineer Pankaj Soni is being the novel idea, which will run on railway tracks at an average speed of 10kmph. On August 25, the East Coast Rail shared a video and informed that the Rail bicycle started its track inspection in Khurda Road Division. 

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