As per the information shared by the zonal railway, the NER zone would become almost 100 per cent electrified railway by the end of this year, i.e. 2022. Post electrification of major routes, the expenditure on high-speed diesel (HSD) has been considerably reduced with a saving of around ₹361 Crores being recorded.
With growing environmental concerns across the world and an alarming need to ensure its conservation arising thereby, the North Eastern Railway (NER) zone of Indian Railways has electrified more than 75% of its routes. Being a strictly passenger-oriented system, the NER has positioned itself as one of the prominent zones of the Indian Railways that has managed to provide safe, secure, faster, reliable and comfortable transportation facilities to the public in 2021.
As a part of its ongoing work on green energy, NER has started a CUF (Capacity Utilization Factor) which is based on solar monitoring system last year, which has resulted in 26 per cent higher solar energy generation as compared to that generated last year with the same installed capacity of 4.72 MWp. Currently, a total of 31 pairs of trains that originate or terminate on the NER are running on Head On Generation (HOG) system.
Alongside water recycling plants have also been commissioned at O4 stations with a capacity of 700KLD per day. Further upgrades undertaken by the North Eastern Railway include the addition of escalators and lifts at 10 different stations with wi-fi connectivity, elimination of level crossings by provisions of under-bridges and over-bridges and renewal of several tracks. According to the information provided by the NER Authorities, several aspects have been considered while implementing several safety measures, with special care taken on minimizing untoward incidents by adopting remedial measures.