The Indian Railways has stepped up its efforts of becoming 100 per cent self-sustainable  - Aatmanirbhar - when it comes to power needs and has solarised more than 960 stations till date. Orders have been placed for 198 MW solar rooftop capacity for 550 stations which are under execution. The national transporter has a mega plan for installing solar plants of 20 GW capacity by utilizing its vacant land by 2030. Some of the Stations solarised are Varanasi, New Delhi, Old Delhi, Jaipur, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Howrah etc.  

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It had recently organised a meeting of leading solar power developers who had shared their expectations of being partners in the journey of Indian Railways to become “net zero carbon emitter” before 2030. Railways is set to produce solar energy for meeting all it's energy consumption needs of more than 33 billion units by 2030.   The current annual requirement is about 20 billion units. 

The Railways is believed to have 51,000 hectares of vacant land available and is now ready to extend all support to the developers for installing solar power plants. Railways is also set to achieve 100% electrification by the year 2023. 

In this regard, to begin with, bids for 3 GW solar projects on vacant Railway land parcels and land parcels along the railway track have already been invited by Railway Energy Management Company Ltd. (REMCL), a PSU of Indian Railways. These solar projects, besides supplying power to Railways at reduced tariff, will also protect the Railway land by the construction of boundary wall along the track. 

The use of solar power will accelerate the Railways’ mission to achieve the goal of becoming ‘Net Zero Carbon Emission Railway’.