Indian Railway
[Representational image]Twitter/Prasar Bharti

Indian Railways and Railway Energy Management Company Ltd. (REMCL - a Joint Venture of Ministry of Railways & RITES Ltd.) organised a Renewable Energy Investors' Meet on  January 9  in New Delhi.

The objective of the Investors' Meet was to disseminate information about the opportunities available under renewable energy in Indian Railways. In the meet, the experience of developers with Railways and key benefits of partnering with Indian Railways was showcased.

Investors' Meet was attended by leading financiers and institutions 

  • Department for International Development, Government of United Kingdom (DFID),
  • Asian Development Bank (ADB),
  • GIZ from Germany,
  • AFD from France,
  • Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA),
  • State Bank of India (SBI),
  • Punjab National Bank (PNB)

Renewable energy organisations

  • Softbank Energy
  • L&T
  • Renew Power
  • Sembcorp
  • Amplus Solar
  • SunEdison
  • Gensol.

Investors acknowledged efforts of Indian Railways

They shared their expectations of being partners in the journey of renewable energy of Indian Railways. The investors acknowledged the efforts of Indian Railways in leading the development of renewable energy in the country and expressed strong support to Indian Railways on the path of going green and achieving the net-zero carbon emissions target by 2030.

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A member of staff walks beside a train in the New Delhi railway station, India February 1, 2017.Reuters

The meet was chaired by Member Traction, Railway Board, Rajesh Tiwari. In the meet, Tiwari gave an overview of Railways' power scenario and the opportunities for various stakeholders in the renewable energy sector. Tiwari mentioned about the steps being undertaken by Indian Railways to reduce the cost of power procurement and the benefits of signing PPAs with Indian Railways such as low off-take risk and clarity on roof rights.

Chairman, REMCL, Rajeev Mehrotra, CEO, REMCL, Sudhir Kumar Saxena, Additional Member, Electrical, Manju Gupta and other senior officials of Railway Board were also present during the meet.

Indian Railways invited bids for 47 MW rooftop & 249 MW of wind-solar hybrid projects

Indian Railways has recently invited bids for 47 MW rooftop solar projects and 249 MW of wind-solar hybrid projects. This meet was supported under the Power Sector Reforms Programme, as a part of cooperation agreed in the MoU signed between UK's DFID and Indian Railways on 2nd December 2019.