Eastern Railway claims savings, reduced carbon footprint in 2025-26 through better energy planning

Kolkata, April 23 (IANS) By generating and utilising more solar energy, improving power factor, regenerating energy and shutting down diesel locomotives, Eastern Railway (ER) claims to have made a major impact by reducing costs and carbon footprint in 2025-26.

“ER generated 22.15 Million Units (MU) of solar energy in 2025-26, registering a 3.40 per cent increase over the previous year. This resulted in a saving of Rs 12.13 crore, which was a 6.50 per cent rise over the previous year,” Shibram Majhi, CPRO, Eastern Railway, said.

Power factor is another important electrical engineering metrics which lead to saving in energy consumption, he explained. The zonal railway recorded a cumulative saving of Rs 4.40 crore up to February 2026 in the financial year due to better power factor utilisation, he said.

A saving of traction energy bill worth Rs 1.36 crore in March 2026 was recorded through better power factor utilisation, he claimed.

“Regeneration of energy by utilisation of 3-phase electric locomotives is another important contributor to energy saving. ER succeeded in saving Rs 16.86 crore in energy bills through the use of 508 three-phase locomotives in March 2026. The average monthly saving through the year has been Rs 14.43 crore across Eastern Railway,” Majhi said.

As Eastern Railway is fully electrified, it undertook a forced shutdown of diesel locomotives during the year. This resulted in considerable savings in fossil fuel consumption. The total quantity of High Speed Diesel (HSD) saved was nearly 3,277.26 kilo litres in 2025-26. This led to a saving of Rs 30.56 crore, the CPRO added.

The Eastern Railway (ER) is one of the 19 zones of the Indian Railways, headquartered at Fairley Place, Kolkata. Established on April 14, 1952, it currently serves West Bengal, Jharkhand, and parts of Bihar, covering a total electrified network of approximately 2,848 km.

–IANS

jayanta/uk