Soon, wind power to light up CSMT building

Every evening, the beauty of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) World Heritage building gets amplified when it's illuminated with colourful lights. To add a feather to its cap, the electricity supplied will be from 'green energy'. Electricity generated from wind energy will be used for the lighting system.

The thematic LED lighting system illuminated this Gothic structure with 25 different themes, and almost 16 million colour combinations. "The LED lighting needs 11kW of power for this world heritage site. Very soon, this electricity will come from wind power," said a CR official.

This 130-year-old building is the headquarters of Central Railway (CR), which has several offices and a small rail heritage museum. The Central Railway has entered into an agreement for 25 years with M/s Sri Pavan Energy, a Government of India Undertaking, for providing wind energy at Rs 5.18 per unit.

"Electricity of 6MW will be generated through wind turbines at Sangli that will be utilised at stations of CSMT, Manmad, Bhusawal and Nagpur. A total of 12.93 million units of power is expected to be generated, which will be utilised for lighting this world heritage building and other offices," said Sunil Udasi, Chief PRO, Central Railway.

The energy generated at Sangli will go into the national grid and shall be supplied to Mumbai, using transmission cables. An estimated Rs 1.5 crore will be saved on electricity bill. Recently, the CR began using solar and wind energy at the Neral-Matheran section, Asangaon and Mankhurd stations.