8. Decarbonization of Indian Railways

About 21% of worldwide CO₂ emissions are attributed to transport in 2014. India’s rail transport has the lowest rate of energy consumption per Tonne-Kilometre (TKM) for goods by rail (102 kJ/TKM) among the countries considered (OECD/IEA 2015). However, given the increase in demand owing to the growth in population and GDP as also the Indian Railways’ expansion plans, the energy consumption of Indian Railways is set to rise. Indian Railways has already considered the importance of increasing the share of low-carbon renewable energy sources such as solar and wind in its total energy mix. It is opportune for the Indian Railways to cut CO₂ emissions using electricity generated by the sun, wind or biofuels. This chapter is an outcome of a study which examined the feasibility of complete decarbonization of Indian Railways under different scenarios for achieving this goal. The study estimated first, rail passenger (both suburban and non-suburban transport) and freight forecast between 2015–16 and 2030–31. As the second step, the study estimated the expected share of electrified tracks in the overall running tracks and the expected share of electric hauling of passenger and freight transport, between 2015–16 and 2030–31. In the third step, this study calculated the energy forecast in terms of electricity and diesel arising from rail transport forecast and share of electric and diesel traction was estimated, between 2015–16 and 2030–31. As the fourth step, the CO₂ emissions attributed to Indian Railways were also calculated, between 2015–16 and 2030–31.