Our Correspondent / New Delhi
Indian Railways today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with M/s GAIL (India) Limited, to provide infrastructure facilities for supply of Natural Gas to Indian Railways Workshops, Production Units and Depots at Rail Bhavan here in presence of Chairman, Railway Board Ashwani Lohani, & CMD GAIL B. C. Tripathi.
The MoU was signed in order to replace Industrial gases like Dissolved Acetylene, LPG, BMCG and Furnace Oil / High Speed Diesel (HSD) oil with environment friendly Natural Gas.
The MoU was signed by Chetram, CAO/ Indian Railway Organization for Alternate Fuels (IROAF) on behalf of Indian Railways and Gajendra Singh, Director (Marketing) from GAIL (India) Limited.
This MoU is a broad based, in principle agreement, between GAIL and Indian Railways for establishment of infrastructure for supply of CNG/LNG/PNG in thirteen identified workshops. This is not a supply agreement, and the commercial terms shall be decided by individual units at the time of freezing their requirements of natural gas.
Speaking on this occasion, Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board said, “The use of Natural Gas in Railway Workshops is a win win situation for both, Indian Railways and GAIL. This is not only an environment friendly initiative but also it is beneficial for Indian Railways as it is going to cut down cost of fuel expenses by 25%”. He also added that Indian Railways would expand the use of Natural gas in all 54 workshops of Indian Railways & production units, base-kitchens, big stations, officers rest houses, hostels of Indian Railways etc.
The pilot project at Matunga workshop and Kota Workshop has been commissioned and supply of Natural Gas has commenced. The Carriage Repair Work Shop at Matunga has begun using CNG in place of Dissolved Acetylene/LPG and expected saving are Rs 20 lakhs per annum. Similarly the use of Natural Gas in lieu of Industrial Gases has also commenced in Kota Workshop of West Central Railway, where the expected saving is Rs 21 Lakh per annum.
The use of CNG has been taken up by Rail Wheel Factory, Bengaluru and natural gas is being used in lieu of HSD in the Draw Furnace of Wheel Shop and all the three furnaces of Axle Shop, leading to a saving of 410 KL of HSD oil per month which amounts to an annual saving of Rs 8-10 Crores at RWF itself, besides, reducing the CO2 emission about by 28%.
Besides the huge benefits to the environment by reducing harmful greenhouse emissions, the replacement of industrial gases and furnace oils with Natural Gas also results in cost benefits with potential for huge savings which has been estimated to the order of Rs. 20 Crs. per annum over all Workshops/ Production Units/ Depots & residential colonies of Indian Railways.