In order to boost the ecological production quotient in our country, the world’s fourth largest rail network, Indian railways has indicated plans to set up for bio-diesel plants.
As per a 2003 signed agreement between Indian Railways and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), a majority of converted fuel engines available with Indian Rail network shall run on the high-speed diesel extracted and blended with bio-diesel in order to increase the efficiency of engines as well as contribute to energy conservation. For the production of bio-diesel, however, Indian Railways had also given 500 hectare land in dry tropical areas like Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jaipur to IOC. This land is being used from the last decade for planting the saplings and returning almost 800 tonnes of bio-diesel by this time.
The Minister of State for Railways, K.H Muniyappa, has recently announced that the first two 30-tonne capacity bio-diesel plants will be set up at Tondiarpet, Tamil Nadu and Raipur Chhattisgarh at the cost of over $5.44 million each. However, the location of the remaining two plants has not yet been confirmed and the first two plants are expected to be commissioned by 2013.
Coming to the norms set by Indian Railway infrastructure & production division, at least 10 per cent bio-diesel has to be mixed with diesel for use in locomotives and therefore Railways needs to have a higher stock of bio-fuel with an increase in diesel demand. But the bio-diesel will be only for captive use and not for commercial sale of the fuel.
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