Indian Railways To Use LNG Instead Of Diesel For Passenger Trains, Will Cut Consumption By 20%

When pollution veiled the National Capital post-Diwali, the entire nation sat in bewilderment wondering what could be done to save the lives of people residing in the area.

But fighting pollution has never been easy - an amalgamation of several small things over a period of time is what we need to follow to fight pollution effectively.

(Also read: Indian Railways To Bring Talgo Trains To Shatabdi Routes In Under A Year's Time)

Railways to run passenger trains on LNG, cut diesel costs by 20% https://t.co/sMmFtik6j5@sureshpprabhu @SV99999 @ibhagwa_n @IndianRailMedia

¡ª Mumbai Railway Users (@mumbairailusers) December 22, 2016

In a bid to enhance this, Indian Railways has decided to move towards Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to run its passenger trains, converting all its existing locomotives into those that are dual-fuel based.

All the trains that have been using diesel, will switch to LNG; and they will, therefore, be retro-fitted.

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The agenda behind this is to cut down on diesel consumption by 20%.

Since LNG is hazardous given that it is inflammable fuel, all the locomotives will be overhauled with enhanced safety features.

(Also read: 100 Stations Across India Will Have High Speed WiFi By December, Says Suresh Prabhu)

Indian Railways has firmed up the plan under which it will convert existing and new driving power cars of diesel-run trains, called DEMUs, into a dual-fuel system.

ibtimes

Most oil companies are selling diesel at as much as Rs 1.80 a litre beginning this week but recently, Indian Railways has renegotiated a long-term deal with Petronet LNG Ltd in December, reworking a 25-year contract with Qatar's RasGas Co, resulting in prices dropping by almost half.

Retro-fitting the LNG tank has to be carefully done as it has to be mounted on a moving platform moving at high speed, needing automatic safety system and alarm with manual override systems, Indian Railways documents mentioned.