Indian Railways is aspiring to become a complete ‘green mode of transportation’, says Vaishnaw
NEW DELHI : Indian Railways will invite mega tenders for about 40 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy in the next two to three years, Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, asking both local and global companies to be ready for large investments.
There is greater focus on clean energy in India to address climate change, the minister said at the CII Partnership Summit 2021 on Monday, adding that the railways is doing its bit to increase the consumption of green energy for its requirements.
The railways aims to become self-reliant in energy and, in this mission, it is also aspiring to become a complete “green mode of transportation”, Vaishnaw said.
India, which has already reached 100 GW of renewable energy, is on course to achieve its 200 GW milestone and the railways is doing its bit to help the country achieve these objectives, the minister said.
Public investment of $80 billion in renewable energy was announced in the last Union budget and a lot of movement has happened in that direction, the minister said.
Even within the railway ministry, a capital expenditure of $15 billion is being undertaken, and this would be achieved by March next year, Vaishnaw said, adding that 60% of the target has been achieved.
Aiming to transform into a green railway by 2030, the national transporter has taken a number of steps including greater electrification of routes and improved energy efficiency of locomotives and trains, and fixed installations. It won green certification for stations and installations, fitted bio-toilets in coaches, and switched to renewable sources of energy.
Indian Railways has completed electrification of more than 40,000 route km. All routes on the broad gauge network are planned to be electrified by December 2023.
Vaishnaw, who also holds the portfolios of communications, electronics, and IT, said India has progressed in manufacturing mobile phones, sharply bringing down their prices and making them affordable to people in the lowest income category. The government will come up with more initiatives to support manufacturing of all mobile components and chips in India, which would further reduce the cost of smartphones, he said.
Tenders of the railways are a big draw among infrastructure firms and involve large investments. Indian Railways announced tenders worth ₹10,600 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal and ₹17,700 crore in the second quarter, according to India Ratings. In FY21, it announced tenders for ₹55,100 crore and placed orders for ₹65,500 crore. In the pre-pandemic year FY20, tenders were even higher at over ₹71,000 crore.
Orders placed in FY21 were more than the number of tenders announced. This has moderately increased the competition, where over five players participated in around 10% of the overall orders in FY21. Competition increased in the first half of FY22, with an increase in the number of bidders. In the second half of FY21, 10% of overall orders awarded had more than five bidders participating. This increased to 14% in 1HFY22. Ind-Ra in its report said it expects this trend to continue with the railways opening its doors to more players to participate.
Source : livemint
