Indian Railways to become environment- friendly, developing LNG-powered locomotives

In a move to make the railways
environment-friendly, the Indian
Railways are working on developing a
locomotive prototype that can run on
liquefied natural gas (LNG), Railway
Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said on
Thursday.
Inaugurating the 10th edition of the
International Rail Exhibition and
Conference organized by the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
here, Kharge said an Indian
manufacturer has set up a joint venture
with a foreign firm for design and
development of the system under the
overall supervision of the railway
ministry's Research Design and Standard
Organization (RDSO).
According to a railway official, it plans
to build another 20 LNG-based
locomotives, once the prototype is
successfully field-tested.
The Indian Railways estimate upto 50
percent reduction in operating costs
with LNG-based locomotives.
Indian Railways' current fleet of
locomotives are mostly based on diesel
and electricity. Diesel prices have been
rising lately due to increasing prices of
crude oil and the depreciation of the
rupee compared to the US dollar.
Estimates of India's gas reserves indicate
that the country has around 1,240
billion cubic metres (bcm) of
conventional gas, 7,465 bcm of
recoverable shale gas and about 1,890
trillion cubic metres of gas hydrates.