Title - Ministry of Railways to build Rail Nuclear Power Plants to cut rising fuel bills

NEW DELHI: Reeling under financial stress, railways is planning to set up captive nuclear power plants which will help the national transporter cut its fuel bill substantially and contribute to energy security.

“We are in talks with Nuclear Power Corporation to set up power plants at existing nuclear sites,” Kul Bhushan, Member (Electrical), Railway Board, said.

The transporter will soon sign an MoU with the government PSU and is also exploring some options in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The move is part of the strategy by railways, the country’s largest high speed diesel consumer, to revisit its energy consumption considering recent hikes in diesel price for bulk users. Railways spent Rs 8,000 crore on electricity in 2012-13, while its diesel bill was around Rs 15,000 crore.

However, in terms of productivity, the larger share of work is done by electric locomotives. Around 65% of freight and 50% of passenger traffic is carried using such locomotives.

Among the strategies being worked out by railways is to increase electrification of tracks, increase production of electric locomotives and to set up captive power plants to ensure adequate and cheap power.

The transporter, which pays about Rs 5.4 a unit of electricity, is expecting to get electricity at Rs 4 or even less through its own captive power plants.

Railways is expecting to operationalize the first phase of its captive power plant at Nabi Nagar in Bihar in May 2014. “The 1000MW plant will be full operational by March 2015,” Kul Bhushan said.

The state-run transporter is also hoping to fast-track commissioning of 2x660MW ‘super critical’ thermal power plant in Purulia’s Adra in West Bengal. The Rs 7,700 crore project is a joint venture between NTPC and railways.

From the present level of 3,000MW of peak requirement, it is estimated that the demand for electricity over the next 10 years will be nearly 5,000MW. “These plants will bring down the cost at which electricity is available to us,” Kul Bhushan said.

“The plan is to ensure cost-effective and environment-friendly solution for rail transport,” he said.

To achieve the above objectives, Ministry of Railways is planning to float a new PSU by name Railway Energy Management Company, as was declared in the Railway Budget 2013-2014 by the then Railway Minister in Parliament.

In the Communication sector too, Indian Railways was over dependent on DOT/BSNL earlier.  IR could cut cost of the entire communication and related infrastructure by floating its own Telecom PSU, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd which saved the cost of approx.Rs.500 Crore per annum – says a report.