North East Frontier Railway will operate two trains on electricity, cut diesel use

The new technology will bring down the power cost of running trains

In a win for clean energy, Indian Railways’ North East Frontier (NFR) zone has started operating two of its trains with Head on Generation (HOG) technology which would power lights, air conditioners, fans and other equipment in passenger coaches, as reported by LiveMint.

The power supply of all electrical equipment will be sourced from electrical locomotives running on electric traction, thereby reducing the use of diesel by a great deal.

The two trains that have started operating HOG technology are Delhi-Dibrugarh Brahmaputra Mail Special and New Delhi-Agartala Rajdhani Special. The technology will power the coaches for return journeys too.

Currently, fuel generated cars consume about 100 litres of diesel per hour which produces 1724.6 tons of carbon dioxide, 7.48 tons of nitrogen oxide per year and 100db of noise.

The new HOG technology will emit zero carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and is noiseless to top it of. It will tap the power supply from overhead power lines through pantographs to the train engine which will then be distributed to all the coaches.

Available at Rs 6 per unit, as compared to the End on Generation (EOG) system which costs Rs 22 per unit, the new HOG technology will reduce the power costs for running trains.

According to a NFR statement, “The new technology will not only help to reduce the power costs for running trains but will also help provide a cleaner environment for our future generations to come.”

The present passenger coaches, produced by the German company Link Hofmann Busch, are designed to run on EOG system with two Diesel Generation sets on either end of the train. In NFR, 29 out of 49 passenger trains have been made compliant with HOG technology and shall be made operational whenever train services start. The remaining 26 will be converted by 2020-21.

The new technology will help reduce fuel bills which in turn will cut down on the foreign exchange spent towards import of fuel. Just for these two trains, 1132 kilolitres of Diesel will be saved per annum which otherwise would have incurred a cost of Rs 7.16 crore per annum.

On 17 September 2019, the Ministry of Railways decided to convert from EOG to HOG technology in all passenger coaches. At the time of the announcement, 342 trains had already been converted, saving approximately Rs 800 crore, a press release said.