In an effort to electrify the canopies of railway stations, the Salem railway division has planned to roll out solar panels soon.

Speaking to TOI over phone from Salem, the divisional railway manager Harishankar Verma said work on setting up panels in Salem junction has already started and will be completed in another 15 days. Coimbatore and Erode will have similar solar canopies, he added.

He said solar panels that generate 200-300 units per day have also been set up at the auditorium. “The project has been carried out under the private-public partnership. We have only provided space for the company, who will set up panels and make money by selling the electricity to the grid,” he said.

Southern railway halted some ambitious solar projects that were announced four years ago. At various locations pilots were set up for solar lights, coaches and power plants, but none of the projects were taken up. Railway department officials said that their focus was electrification and not solar power.

In the next two years, the railway department plans to convert all the lights into solar-powered lights. “We have already switched to solar and LED lights at the railway employees’ homes, officers’ colonies and guest houses,” an official said.

However, prime projects such as a full 12-coach solar rake and solar-powered coaches for which several lakhs were sought from the government is on the back burner. “The focus is more on the electrification right now,” an official said. Solar-powered engines and coaches were launched as part of the railway’s Go Green initiative in January, 2017. The coaches were to have 16 solar panels mounted on them.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/solar-canopies-to-power-rly-stations/articleshow/63703898.cms

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