Central Railway awaits approval for using Gujarat power

Central Railway awaits approval for using Gujarat power

Mumbai: The Central Railway (CR) is yet to get a final approval from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) about getting electricity at a cheaper rate from Gujarat, which it had applied for about 40 days ago.

The CR has already signed an MoU with the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) in a bid to save money. MSEDCL charges approximately `10 per unit while GEB will charge only `5-6 per unit, said the officials. This would be a big boon for CR trains that run around 1,619 services. An official, on condition of anonymity, said, “We’re slated to convert our electrical system from 1,500 volts to 25, 000 volts between CST and Kurla. This would mean that we are going to incur huge costs if we continue to use electricity generated in Maharashtra.”

The CR consumes around 160 million units of electricity per month, therefore the money amounts to Rs 144 crore a month.

After CR converts from Direct Current to Alternate Current, the expense per month would increase by 16 times. “We will have to end up paying around Rs 23,000 crore per month. We just don’t have the money to pay that much,” added the official.

MSEDCL PRO Ram Dotonde said, “Usually if someone wants to buy power from another body, they have to pay a surcharge to get the approval. I will have to check if the procedures have been fulfilled.”