Promoting Low Carbon Rail Transportation: Tracing the Progress of Electrification on Indian Railways

Figure 1.1. Source: Ministry of Railways, Government of India

Indian Railways post-independence commenced rebuilding itself with the establishment of production units in collaboration with external players (Bhandari 2005; Misra 2009). The year 1969 marked a giant leap of Indian railway when India embarked on its quest for high-speed with the first Rajdhani connecting the state capital with the national capital (Aklekar 2019). India’s growing pace of modernization went a step ahead with the ceasing of mainline steam operations in 1971 with a thrust towards the use of diesel and electric locomotives (Kumar & Mehrotra 2009). The advent of economic reforms further pushed for exploring opportunities for railway modernization amongst which gauge conversion and electrification occupying the center stage of government modernization agenda. The decades preceding the economic liberalization were marked by massive transformation globally with countries like Japan, France, China switching to High-Speed Rail and the push for electrification. Indian Railways is no exception to the ongoing global changes in the railway community. Electrification, therefore, progressed during the first-decade post-economic liberalization as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.2. Source: Ministry of Railways, Government of India

Before 1991, about 10,083 kilometers of the network had been electrified, which saw a gradual increase in the target of railway electrification till 1997 up to 13,509 kilometers during the eighth plan, before declining 2500 kilometers during the years 1998 to 2001 during the ninth five-year plan, which marked the beginning of a new millennium.

Figure 1.3. Source: Ministry of Railways, Government of India

The starting of the new millennium was marked by the financial crisis, with the railways recording a balance of just Rs.350 crores (Kumar & Mehrotra 2009). Despite economic hardship, electrification remained the priority of the government, receiving a thrust during the 2008 visit of Laloo Prasad Yadav to Karnataka on the occasion of the inaugural run of Mangalore-Bangalore (now Mangaluru-Bengaluru) broad gauge train. The total electrification was set at 1299 kilometers.

Electrification reached its peak with the change of governance at the central level in 2014. The government with succession to power in 2014, provided a thrust to electrification in 2015-16 with targeted electrification of 9400 kilometers. Over the next 5 years, the government aims to electrify a total of 38,000 kilometers.

Despite the thrust provided over the years to the electrification program, it has been slow to progress over the past 29 years. The following section will address the reasons behind the slow pace of electrification.

Roadblocks to Complete Electrification

Indian Railways has a fleet of 12,147 locomotives of which 6,049 locomotives are diesel, while 6,059 are electric locomotives as of 31st March 2019 (Ministry of Railways 2019). As of 2019 34,319 route kilometers out of 67,415 kilometers have been electrified. The following route carries 65.4 percent of freight and 56.2 percent of passenger traffic. The fuel cost of electricity constitutes 33.2 percent of the traction cost. 66.8 percent of the expenditure is on diesel fuel amounting to Rs.18,000 crores. To implement the electrification project on a massive scale, it is required that the government takes gauge conversion projects on a priority basis. Since the implementation of the unigauge project in 1992 to promote a uniform gauge across the Indian railways, the total length of meter gauge operational on the Indian railway spans over 3,479 kilometers.

The slow momentum of electrification can also be attributed to the rising security concerns in pockets of the Indian subcontinent, i.e., areas bordering neighboring countries most importantly Pakistan and Bangladesh, with uncertainty over warmongering at all times (Thakur 2018). It is also the per kilometer electrification cost that needs consideration before jumping into drive mode while implementing the electrification policy. The acquisition of electric locomotives involves massive costs amounting to between Rs.40,000 to 50,000 crores. This would also mean the conversion of existing diesel locomotive sheds to electric to provide additional maintenance facilities.

The Track Ahead

The government in 2017 unveiled the Mission 41K program, which aims to switch over to complete electric traction from the current diesel traction and resultant saving of 41,000 crores by switching to LED lighting at stations and other railway buildings apart from mainline train operations. The program, however, is clouded by some vagueness and a lack of emphasis on international geographical constraints. The geographical challenges include regions like the Northeast and pending policy goals such as pending gauge conversion projects. The electrification policy has given almost a negligible priority to the borderlines, with no study of the viability of borderlines being inducted as a part of the electrification program.

The growing global participation through technology transfer and expertise requires a greater outlook to expanding the benefit to the strategically potential lines as well as facilitating the development of these areas. The electrification program, therefore, requires India to look into the challenges posed on the international operation front, with the railways also operating cross-border train services. Electrification though started on a progressive note, yet requires a more in-depth understanding of the challenges from the geographic, diplomatic, and pandemic perspective to achieve holistic development of India’s electrified railway network.

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