Railways reduces cost of electric traction energy bill, saves Rs 5,636 crore

New Delhi [India], Nov 23 (ANI): The Indian Railways (IR) has succeeded in achieving a cumulative saving of Rs 5,636 crore from April 2015 to October 2017 against the 'Business As Usual' (BAU) mode, in a strategy to reduce the cost of its electric traction energy bill, by procurring power directly under Open Access arrangements, as per a notification from the Ministry of Railways.

This cumulative figure is likely to further go up to Rs 6,927 crore by the end of the current financial year (March 2018), which is around Rs 1,000 crore more than the stipulated target.

The estimated savings on these accounts indicates that in the next ten years (2015-2025), these initiatives can generate a cumulative saving of about Rs 41,000 crore in electric traction bill, which has been named as IR's Mission 41K.

The feat was achieved by adopting innovative strategies of procurring power under open access arrangements.

Presently, the total requirement of about 2,000 MW of IR for electric traction power, more than 1,000 MW, is flowing under Open Access.

This has reduced the average cost of power in states where power is flowing under Open Access to about Rs 5 from earlier cost of more than Rs 7 per unit.

Power for railways is presently being sourced through Open Access route in seven states namely Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) area.

Moreover, five more states namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana have also agreed to permit Railways for flow of power though Open access route which is likely to start by 2018.

The Ministry of Railways will utilise these savings for taking up electrification of the balance rail network as part of 'Mission Electrification'.

This will further reduce the diesel bill and multiply the savings in energy bill, taking it to about Rs 10,500 crore per annum in the next few years on 100 per cent electrification of the IR network. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI