‘Mission Electrification’ & ‘First EPC’ contract of Indian Railways
New Delhi: Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu was the Chief Guest at Exchange of Agreement with Stakeholders as part of ‘Mission Electrification’ & ‘First EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction)’ contract of Indian Railways. Minister of State for Railways & Minister of State for Communications (Independent Charge) Manoj Sinha was especially present to grace the occasion. Chairman, Railway Board, A. K. Mital, Member Traction, Railway Board, Ghanshyam Singh and other Railway Board Members and senior officials were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railway Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that Indian Railway has given higher thrust on infrastructure creation, electrification. During last 4 years, total 103 Railway Electrification projects consisting of 16,815 route kilometer at estimated cost of Rs 17, 615 crores have been sanctioned. Indian Railways for first-time build partnership with multifold agencies for execution of Railway Electrification projects by entrusting 1735 rkm of RE projects to IRCON, RITES & PGCIL.
Minister of Railways further emphasized that cumulative saving due to electric traction bill will be about Rs 26,000 crore in a decade which will be in addition to saving of Rs 41,000 crore planned to be achieved due to a reduction in the cost of power to Railways. Mission Electrification shall also make Indian Railways more environment-friendly.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said that the speedy implementation of projects is appreciated. Mission Electrification is one such initiative to transform Railways. Mission Electrification will reduce the traction bill & help Indian Railways make the operation cost better & save significantly. The ambitious plan to electrify 4000 rkm will make Indian Railways more environment-friendly by reducing the emission.’
Ghanshyam Singh, Member Traction, Railway Board said, ‘Indian Railways, as part of the broader policy of GoI, to reduce Carbon footprint, increase energy security by reducing import bill, has taken up this mega effort to electrify almost all Railway broad gauge (BG) tracks in next 5 years. It is expected that electrification of 90% of BG network of Indian Railway will result into reduction in fuel bill by Rs 3,300 crores per annum from 2020-21 onward with this will provide cumulative savings of Rs 26,000 crores in next 10 years.’
The Minister of State for Communications (Independent Charge) and Railways, Shri Manoj Sinha and the Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital are also seen.
BACKGROUNDER: Indian Railways had launched Mission Electrification on 3rd Nov’16 under the guidance of Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, for electrification of 24,400 route kilometre (rkm) of BG network in next five years i.e. almost equal to what has been done from the introduction of electric traction since 3rd Feb’1925. In order to make this ambitious project successful, Indian Railways for the first time has changed from Business as usual (BAU) approach and entrusted new electrification works not only to Railway PSUs like Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) and Rail India Techno Economic Service (RITES) but also to Power Grid Corporation India Limited (PGCIL), a well-known transmission sector PSU under Ministry of Power (MoP). As part of Mission Electrification, in recent past 10 different electrification projects covering 2516 route kilometer at a cost of about Rs 2797 Cr. have been finalized in a short duration.
Indian Railways also for the first time for effective management and fast execution of project has awarded Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts for Electrification of Delhi Sarai Rohilla – Rewari and Alwar – Bandikui – Jaipur – Phulera – Ajmer (353 RKM) section at a cost of Rs 594 crore and Roha – Verna (428 RKM) of Konkan Railway at a cost of Rs 456 crore to M/s L&T. For the faster execution of Railway Electrification projects, BAU approach has been changed. Emphasis has been put on the mechanized execution of OHE construction works.
It has been planned to introduce Self Propelled type Wiring Train for faster and efficient wiring of both catenary and contact wires and Self-propelled type Multi Utility Vehicles for faster mast erection within shorter block period. Similarly, pre cast cylindrical foundation (cast in-situ) and the prefabricated foundation is also being introduced for mast erection.
In addition, the project approval/ sanctioning process period has been streamlined and normal 24 months has been reduced to about six months only. For fast track execution of projects adequate and timely funding of the projects is being ensured Extra Budgetary Resources (Institutional Financing).
In this regard in an event for ‘Exchanging of Agreement with Stakeholders as part of ‘Mission Electrification’ & ‘First EPC’ contract of Indian Railways’ was held on 04th August 2017 at Rail Bhawan, New Delhi. Indian Railway brought out-
● First EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction) based contract of Indian Railways valuing Rs 1050 Cr. for 781 rkm with M/s L&T. The contract has been awarded by CORE and Konkan Railway for major electrification projects.
● In this event additionally, eight agreements were exchanged between Zonal Railways and Public Sector Undertakings for 1735 rkm of electrification projects valuing Rs 1746 Cr.