Power shortage in India has been a recurring problem through the decades. Several efforts have been made to tap alternative resources to increase power generation. Now, a former banker from Gujarat has pitched in a novel idea to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
According to the Indian Express, Vipin Tripathi from Ahmedabad has come up with the brainwave of installing windmills along railway tracks to produce electricity, using the wind generated by moving trains. He proposed this idea to the PMO, which in turn has forwarded it to the Railways Ministry to explore the feasibility of this novel suggestion. According to the 81-year-old ex-employee of Bank of Baroda, the idea came to him suddenly while he was travelling by train. He then decided to pitch it to one of his friends, who knew a man who worked with Narendra Modi to improve the power situation in Gujarat. Using that rather obscure channel, Tripathi forwarded his million dollar idea to the PMO.
Now, apparently the idea has caught the fancy of the PMO. They have asked the Railway ministry to seriously ponder the issue. Rail Bhavan officials have opened lines of communication with Tripathi, though they are not really optimistic about the future of the idea. The Railways may even call him to give more technical details about his idea in the future, an invitation Tripathi is eagerly looking for.
According to a mail Tripathi received, railway officials have given a scientific rebuttal to his idea. They have said, “A train will pass the windmill in less than 20 seconds. Even if there is a train every 15 minutes, a windmill can operate for only 25 minutes per day. This will not be viable economically. Further, the energy produced by the windmills would have to come from the trains only, which will consume extra energy.”
But since the instructions for pursuing the matter have come from the very top, the railways are not dumping the idea so soon. A flurry of emails have been exchanged between Tripathi and railway officials. However, it does seem as if the railways' final answer to the PMO will be in the negative, though they are biding their time in this matter.
Experts, too, have rejected Tripathi's suggestions outright. Looks like this Gujarati will not go down in the annals of history!
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