Ludhiana railway station is reportedly gearing up to tap solar power to fulfil its massive power requirement. The railway station is installing solar power system which will generate 2 megawatt of power and save crores of rupees annually reports ET.
Currently, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited is fulfilling the electricity demand of the station and the Ludhiana railway station is paying an average of Rs 25 lakh monthly bill.
According to the publication once the solar power plant on the rooftop of the railway station is fully operational, the bill will be cut by about 60%.
The railway ministry’s plan to introduce rooftop solar panel technology for electricity generation at 8,000 railway stations is a massive project, under this project the Northern Railway will get around 20 Megawatt of solar power generation capacity, of which, Ludhiana railway station will receive around 2 Megawatt of solar energy system.
ET notes that fr the speedy implementation of the project, a team of Azure Power Company visited the Ludhiana station to identify the suitable sites where the rooftop solar energy system would be set up. Azure Power has signed a contract with the railway ministry for the solar plant installation.
Ludhiana station director Abhinav Singla speaking to the publication said, “Around 2 MW of power generating system will be received by the Ludhiana railway soon. It will cater to half of its present electricity needs. The solar photovoltaic cells will be installed on the rooftop of the main building and provide power to all the offices, power cabin, waiting hall, etc. It will also be installed on the roofs of the guest house and carriage and wagon (C&W) buildings. One of the major reasons behind the commencement of this project is to bring down the monthly energy bill and to reduce the dependence on power utilities.”