Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi inaugurated the plant, which has been installed on the rooftops of two major buildings of the depot
Kolkata: A 1.2 megawatt solar plant was commissioned at East-West Metro’s depot and control room in Salt Lake Central Park on Thursday.
Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi inaugurated the plant, which has been installed on the rooftops of two major buildings of the depot. Senior officials like Manas Sarkar, MD, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), implementing agency of the East-West Metro corridor, were present at Thursday’s event.
Metro Railway awarded the Rs 8.2 crore project contract to S G Renew Energy Kolkata Private Limited. The solar power developer, which has executed the project on a PPP model, will operate and maintain the plant for 25 years.
“We draw electricity from WBSEDCL to run the train operations and power supply to the seven currently functional Metro stations. But we can now make use of the solar plant and save around Rs 45 lakh annually,” a KMRC official said.
The plant, covering 60,000 sqm of the depot’s workshop and 3173sqm area of the ATO building, has been constructed as part of 100 MW-peak rooftop solar generation projects for Indian Railways which aims to become “Net Zero Carbon Emitter” by 2030. After the solar plant’s launch, GM Joshi dedicated a rake to passenger service and planted saplings inside the depot.
Source: TNN
