30 December 2015

Sh. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister for RailwaysFlags Off The First Rajdhani-12952 New Delhi- Mumbai Rajdhani Express Train With Head On Generation (HoG) System

  Sh. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister for Railways dedicates the 26 MW Windmill Plant installed at Kodiyasar village, Fatehgarh in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan as a part of green initiative of Indian Railways to the Nation & flags off the first Rajdhani-12952 New Delhi- Mumbai Rajdhani Express train with Head o­n Generation (HoG) System from New Delhi railway station.
On this occasion several dignitaries including Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Govt. of India, Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Hon’ble MP (LS) were also present at the time of ceremonial function at New Delhi railway station.

Sh. Navin Tandon, Member/ Electrical, Railway Board; Sh. Hemant Kumar, Member/ Mechanical, Railway Board; Sh. Pradeep Kumar, Member/ Staff, Railway Board& other members of Railway Board; Shri A.K. Puthia, General Manager, Northern Railway and Shri Arun Arora, Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railway, Delhi, along with several other Centre and State Government officials also graced the occasion.
The wind mill plant has been set up by Railway Energy Management Company Ltd (REMCL), a Joint Venture of Indian Railways and RITES Ltd, mandated to take green initiatives and power procurement for Railways. As Indian Railways consume about 15 billion units for traction purposes and 2.5 billion units for non-traction purposes annually. Ever increasing passenger and freight traffic is likely to further increase the energy requirements for the traction purpose.The electricity generated from this plant will be utilised for powering three traction substations namely Bharatpur, Hindaun & Ramganj Mandi in Bharatpur- Kota Section of Delhi-Mumbai trunk route of West Central Railway, will now be the first “Railway Green Corridor”. The plant is expected to generate over 50 million units of electricity per annum.  Speaking o­n the occasion, Shri Prabhu emphasised the need to protect our environment, promoting sustainable development and reducing dependence o­n fossil fuel while rationalising the cost of fuel bills.
Sh. Prabhu mentioned that Indian Railways have taken several initiatives to harness wind and solar energy in a big way so as to provide environmental friendly and pollution free mode of transport. These include roof top and vacant land based solar power plants, wind power plants, solar based water heating systems, solar coolers & solar street lights etc. at various locations.
He further stated that Railway are planning to source 1000 MW solar power over next 5 years besides establishing 132 MW wind mill plants.
In HoG or “Head o­n Generation System” system of power supply power for train lighting & air-conditioning in coaches is taken from over head power lines and supplies to coaches instead of power taken from power cars in  End o­n Generation (EoG) system.

The advantage of HoG system over EoG are as under:
a)No noise pollution due to Power cars o­n Platforms. At present Power cars generate noise of 105 dB.
b)Use of cleaner energy source i.e. instead of Diesel Generator set power drawn from over head power lines. o­n an average 3000 liters of fuel is consumed in round trip from New Delhi to Mumbai and back.
c)For 20 coach Rajdhani train New Delhi to Mumbai, approximately saving of Rs 1.5 lacs per round trip considering the per unit costs  of Electricity by power cars & Hotel load converter @ Rs 13.0 and @ Rs 7.1 respectively. This amounts to nearly Rs 5.5 Cr savings for this train annually.
d)Reduction in emission of Green House gases.
e)Trials of Head o­n Generation (HoG) arrangement have been successfully done in Shatabdi trains between New Delhi – Kalka (13 coaches) and Chandigarh (17 coaches) routes for nearly 250 – 300 kms run o­n o­ne side.
f)For first time, it is proposed to provide Head o­n Generation for train no. 12952 New Delhi - Mumbai Rajdhani Express (20 coaches) having nearly 1400 kms run o­n each side.
g)At present 2 WAP-7 type of Electric locos are fitted with Hotel load converters of 2x500 kVA are available for trial purpose.
h)During current year up to 31-03-16, it is planned to manufacture 12-13 more such locomotives at CLW after which few more Shatabdi & Rajdhani trains can be switched over to Head o­n Generation system.