Setback For Railways Green Goals As The Body Set Up To Explore Alternative Fuels Is Shut Down
The Indian Railways has said that a body that was set up to explore alternative fuels for trains in India has been shut down.
According to Railways, the Indian Railways Organization of Alternate Fuel (IROAF), has issued an order to shut down the organisation from September 7.
"Ministry of Railways has decided to close down the Indian Railways Organization for Alternate Fuels' with effect from September 7, 2021," the order stated.
"Only administrative change. Projects will be executed as usual," the Railways said.
The order has also stated that the work of IROAF will be transferred to the Northern Railways and the Railway Board.
The solar power rolling stock or the Alternate Fuel Electrical Directorate of the organisation will be transferred to the Railway Board. Its existing tenders and contracts, if any, about solar power will be handled by the Northern Railway.
All work-related to hydrogen fuel cells, including their tenders, will be transferred to the Northern Railways.
The closure comes nearly a month after the IROAF had floated a tender for "hydrogen fuel cell-based technology" for retrofitting the existing Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU).
It was said that two DEMU rakes will be converted at first to use hydrogen as fuel. Rs 8 crore has been set aside for this phase in the current year.
Later, two hybrid narrow gauge locomotives will be retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cell power movement.
Using hydrogen will be a major step towards lowering pollution from trains as the gas is known to be the greenest transport fuel. Hydrogen can be generated easily by electrolysing the water from solar energy, the ministry had stated earlier.
It said that Annually, the Indian Railways will save Rs 2.3 crore courtesy of using hydrogen fuel to power its trains.
In July 2020, the Ministry of Railways had said that is aims to transform Indian Railways into Green Railways by 2030 by focusing on electrification, improving the energy efficiency of locomotives and trains and fixed installations, green certification for installations/stations, fitting bio-toilets in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy are parts of its strategy of achieving net-zero carbon emission.?
