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In a first, Central Railway buys power from revived Dabhol plant

Between them, WR and CR spend a little over Rs2800 crore to run their suburban systems and around Rs 560 crore of this is spent on electricity.

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In the biggest move in the power sector for the railways in a long time, the railways on Thursday began the process of buying power directly from a power generating firm, bringing to an end the practice of exclusively buying electricity from the respective state electricity boards through which its tracks run. At 8:47am, the newly-revived Ratnagiri Gas and PowerPrivate Limited (RGPPL) at Dabhol supplied 269 megawatts (MW) of electricity to 47 traction sub-stations (TSS) in Maharashtra, which power the railway lines of the Central (CR), Western (WR), South-East Central (SECR) and South Central Railways (SCR).

In a statement issued by the railways, the public transporter said that the savings in energy bills because of this move is expected to be in the range of Rs2.50 to Rs3.50 per unit, which will result in a substantial saving to the tune of Rs500-700 crore per year to the Indian Railways for the 47 traction substations located in Maharashtra. CR currently spends about Rs1,600 crore every year for the electricity that powers its train operations.

Between them, WR and CR spend a little over Rs2800 crore to run their suburban systems and around Rs 560 crore of this is spent on electricity. The biggest chunk of course is staff salaries.

The power purchase agreement between railways and RGPPL is the culmination of more than a year of work on the part of the railways to get the Union ministry of power to give the former a deemed distribution licensee status so that it could purchase power from generating companies like RGPPL. The ministries of railways and power had been negotiating over this for a long time and railways had also filed petitions for the deemed status under Section 14 of the Electricity Act, 2003 with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission. "A Special Cell has been formed at Mumbai Office of Central Railway to monitor online scheduling of power in consultation with State Load Dispatch Centre and RGPPL Power Plant. It is a historic day for the railways and will bring about tremendous savings in energy bills for the railways," said Narendra Patil, chief public relations officer, CR.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu in his budget speech on Febraury 26 this year had highlighted the problems railway is facing due to the purchase of power at high rates from various distributing companies of state boards. He laid down that the railway, in order to make savings of Rs 3000 crores on this front, had to come up with a legal framework that allowed the railways to procure power from generating companies, power exchanges and through bilateral power agreements. The RGPPL-CR power purchase agreement is the first step in this regard, said city-based railway officials.

Officials said that the deemed licensee status will allow railway zones like CR to buy power from states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh among others, all states with surplus power.

The Railways power requirement:
As of now, 26269 route kilometres of Indian Railways' tracks are electrified. This amount to about 39.92 percent of all tracks. Currently 65.4 percent of freight traffic and 51.20 percent of passenger traffic is hauled through electricity. Electricity constitutes about 36.32 percent of railways' energy bills.

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