BENGALURU: An eco-friendly initiative will be launched at City Railway Station on Monday when the Chennai-Mysuru Shatabdi Express will be run on diesel blended with biodiesel.
Hubballi railway station was the first under South Western Railway, and second in the country, to implement such an initiative with the Hubballi-Bengaluru Janshatabdi Express last week.
In this year’s Budget, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had made an assurance to make the department eco-friendly. The Chennai-Mysuru Shatabdi (train no 12007) will travel from Chennai to Bengaluru as an electrical loco and run on diesel from Bengaluru.
The move involves creating organic fuel using extractions from non-edible oil seeds, Jatropha and Pongamia. Five per cent of the normal high-speed diesel will be replaced with biofuel.
“Trains from the Bengaluru Railway Division are filled with approximately 1 lakh litres of diesel daily. So we will be replacing 5,000 litres of diesel daily with biodiesel,” said Parimal N Shinde, senior divisional mechanical engineer (SDME), Bengaluru Division. “Biodiesel will emit less greenhouse gases,” he added.
All the low-fuelling installation (fuelling work, known in railway parlance as RCD) takes place at one end of platform 10 at present.
Kolkata-based Emami Agrotech will supply the division with the biofuel. “With diesel costing the Railways Rs 49 a litre, we spend a whopping Rs 49 lakh every day towards fuel expenses. Switching more than 5 per cent of it with biofuel will result in savings of around Rs 15,000 a day,” Shinde said.
After the inauguration, all the trains in Bengaluru Division will run on diesel blended with biofuel.
An average of 200 trains start from City Railway Station every day. Those from Yeshwantpur will continue running only on diesel for now.
Cutting Down Imports: “What is really important is that the biofuel is manufactured within the country while crude oil for diesel is imported. By cutting down on imports, we could have a substantial reduction in foreign exchange spent on purchase of high-speed diesel,” Shinde said.
On June 5 this year, Sanathnagar (Hyderabad) in South Central Railway became the first station in the country to implement the eco-friendly measure.
Trains from Hosapete station, which falls under Hubballi division, will be the next to run on biodiesel, Shinde added.
HOW MUCH WILL RAILWAYS SAVE?
5,000 litres of diesel will be replaced with bioduel every day
1 lakh litres of diesel used daily at City Station
200 number of trains from City Station daily
Rs 15,000 estimated daily savings