Indian Railways’ Green Move To Benefit Passengers As Four Lakh Additional Berths Will Be Available From October

Over four lakh additional berths per day will be available to the passengers from October as the Indian railways is planning to use a technology that will allow power generation cars to be replaced with sleeper cars, reports Economic Times.

At present, most of the trains have power cars housing diesel generators to supply electricity to coaches for various purposes such as lighting, air-conditioning and fans.

According to the report, the Railways is now planning to introduce ‘Head on Generation’ (HOG) technology, which is already in use globally, to power the coaches. In the HoG, power supply is tapped from the overhead power lines and is distributed to the coaches.

At present, the power from overhead tension wires tapped through an equipment known as pantograph is used only to run the engines.

As per the report, by October this year, over 5000 coaches of the Indian Railways will shift to the new technology. Such a move can save around Rs 6000 crore in annual fuel bills apart from accommodating additional coaches.

The power car needs 40 litres of diesel per hour per non-AC coach while it takes 60-70 litres of diesel for providing electricity to an AC coach.

The new eco-friendly arrangement will reduce the carbon emissions by 700 metric tonne per year per train, officials said.