Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has announced the winning of a major railway electrification order.
In a stock exchange communication, L&T said that its Railways Strategic Business Unit (SBU) has clinched an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order from Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE).
The order is for “Package EPC-06” that entails electrification of 918.40 route km (or 1171.31 track km) of railway lines in the North Western Railway. Other details like contract value and contractual completion date were not disclosed.
“The project is a part of the ‘Mission Electrification’ initiative of the Central Government aimed to electrify the entire Indian Railway Network to reduce carbon footprint and expenditure on diesel,” L&T said in the communication.
The Railway SBU of L&T is already executing two major EPC contracts from CORE: EPC-01 (Gr. 182,184 and 185) to electrify the Delhi- Jaipur line and EPC-07 to electrify various sections of the Southern Railway.
Established in 1979 under the Ministry of Railways, CORE is primarily responsible for electrification of railway tracks of Indian Railways.
100 per cent electrification
It may be mentioned that a government statement issued in late December 2020 said that Indian Railways (IR) has planned to achieve 100 per cent electrification of its broad gauge (BG) network by 2030.
IR has electrified 66 per cent of its BG network by November 2020 and when fully electrified, IR hopes to save Rs.14,500 crore on its energy bills, annually.
The pace of electrification has improved over the recent years, the statement observed. From 1,176 rkm (route kilometre) in FY15, electrification improved to 5,276 rkm in FY19. In FY20, despite the COVID setback, IR could achieve electrification of 4378 rkm. In FY21, up to November 2020, the achievement stands at 1682 rkm.
The statement observed that once 100 per cent electrification is completed, IR will achieve a unique feat among the major railways in the world to run trains fully with indigenously produced power without dependence on imported fossil fuel.
According to estimates made before the pandemic outbreak, IR had planned to electrify 6,000 rkm of BG network in each of the years FY20, FY21 and FY22. The target for FY23 stood at 6,500 rkm and that for FY24 (first three quarters) was 4,310 rkm.
