This Republic Day, the Central Railway (CR) will go green. A good 52 railway stations on the suburban section will have LED lights fitted on its premises, including stations, platforms, buildings and offices there. These would include stations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Byculla, Dadar and other stations on the CR.
The LED lights are said to illuminate brighter as it emits more lux than the regular ones and are also a money saver. The CR authorities will save Rs 148 lakh of public money every year from these stations and savings are expected to go up once all stations are fitted with LED lights.
"We are hoping to install LED lights on station premises and office buildings by March 31 on the entire Mumbai suburban stations," said SK Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway.
Also few stations — namely Grant Road, Virar carshed, Lower Parel, Mahim and Asangaon — will also go solar from January 26 on both CR and WR. In fact, DNA had first reported about it on December 11 in the article 'Railways goes solar to power city's commute on local trains'. These solar panels are been placed on the roofs of the platforms.
The Western Railway (WR) has identified 23 locations on its Churchgate-Virar section. These solar panels will have an installed capacity of 4.7Mw equivalent to the power used by floodlights at Wankhede stadium.
"Asangaon will be the first station that shall go total green as it would be receiving electricity from solar and wind energy," added Jain. Asangaon has a daily capacity of 11kW but 16kW of power is being made available through this renewable energy.
On January 26, other passenger amenities like FOBs, escalators, lifts and emergency medical rooms that shall be made available. Sources said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is expected to inaugurate these facilities.
