POWER GENERATION BY INDIAN RAILWAY.

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                  In a major initiative, the Ministry of Railways takes a step forward in augmenting its own internal power generation to meet its electricity requirements when it is going to sign an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), a PSU under the Ministry of Power, Government of India for a Joint Venture captive power plant at Adra in West Bengal on tomorrow i.e. 31st October 2010. The Adra power plant will have capacity of 1320 MW (2 units of 660 MW, super critical units). This power plant will employ super critical technology which is more environment friendly. The MoU will be signed at a function to be held at Anara near Adra (Purulia District, West Bengal) between the Railways and NTPC in the presence of the Union Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee.

The Minister of States for Rural Development Shri Sisir Kumar Adhikari, Government of India and the Minister of State for Shipping, Government of India, Shri Mukul Roy will also be present on the occasion. Especially present on the occasion among others will be, Member Electrical Railway Board Shri Sudesh Kumar, Member Mechanical, Railway Board, Shri Sanjiv Handa, Member Engineering, Railways Board and General Manager, South Eastern Railway, Shri A.P.Mishra and Chairman cum Managing Director, NTPC, Shri Arup Roy Choudhury.

In the same function, the Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee will also lay the foundation stone for Coach Mid-Life Rehabilitation (MLR) workshop. This will be the second such factory in the Indian Railways after Bhopal. Mid-Life Rehabilitation of coaches breathes life into old coaches and contributes immensely to improve not only their residual service life but also rejuvenate the interiors. The workshop’s output will result in greater availability of coaches.

The peak power requirement of Railways at present is about 3500 MW and likely to go upto 4500 MW by the end of XII year plant. Railways draws its power from state distribution utilities. Railways own captive power plant will help provide power in a more reliable, cost effective, uninterrupted and at economical manner. The electricity generated by Railways’ own plants will turn out to be cheaper than the power provided by state electricity boards to Railways.

Earlier, Railways and NTPC jointly set up 1000 MW thermal power plant at Nabinagar in Bihar which is presently under implementation stage. In addition, Railways has already made operational a 10.5 MW Wind Energy plant at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.