GREEN RAILWAYS BY 2030

Indian railways moves 24 million passengers every day — a shade less than the population of Australia — on 13,000 trains, around 67,956 kilometres across the sub-continent. Add to that another 3.3 million tonnes of freight — 1,200 million tonnes during 2020/21 — daily, and the fuel needs are immense. As a result, the carbon footprint of the Indian Railways is mammoth. According to the railway ministry, the national transporter consumed 115.45 lakh kilo litres of high-speed diesel between 2014/15 and 2018/19. But, change is happening and that too rapidly.

In 2019/20, 43 per cent of passenger traffic was hauled by diesel locomotives, and 57 per cent by electric traction. That’s a sharp change from 2000/01 when diesel locomotives handled 56.1 per cent of passenger traffic and electric traction was much lower at 43.9 per cent. In