Railways producing Bio-diesel, utilising for own requirement: Manoj Sinha

Railways producing Bio-diesel, utilising for own requirement: Manoj Sinha

The government today said that the Railways has been producing bio-diesel from waste vegetable oils using laboratory scale plants, for shunting of engines, diesel electric multiple units and others, the Lok Sabha was informed today. In a written reply, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said bio-diesel produced by the Railways was utilised for its own requirement. He informed that in 2013-14 the Railways had produced 16.50 kilolitres of bio-diesel and in 2014-5, 18.52 kilolitres were produced. 

He also said the Railways has also sanctioned setting up of two in-house bio-diesel production units of 30 tonnes per day capacity each to supplement market availability. In another reply, Mr Sinha said the Indian Railways from time to time has issued guidelines to harness wind and solar energy. To reduce dependence on fossil fuel, the Railways has installed solar and windmill plants of about 20 mega watt capacity, he said. Mr Sinha said that there was a proposal by the Railways to set up 1000 MW solar plants by developers and about 157.5 MW of wind plants in Joint Venture (JV) mode on Railway or private land and on rooftop of Railway buildings at their own cost with subsidy gap funding support of Ministry of Non-Renewable Energy (MNRE) in next five years.