Chennai: Indian Railways has embarked upon an ambitious plan of electrification of its complete Broad Gauge network which would not only result in a better fuel energy usage resulting in increased throughput, reduced fuel expenditure but also savings in precious foreign exchange.
During the FY 2022-23, till September 2022, Indian Railways has achieved 851 Route Kilometers (RKMs) as compared to 562 RKMs during the corresponding period of FY 2021-22. It is 51.4% more than the previous year figures of the corresponding period. The target set for electrification during this Financial Year is 6500 RKMs.
It is worth mentioning that record electrification of 6,366 RKMs was achieved in Indian Railways’ history during 2021-22. Earlier, highest electrification was 6,015 RKM during 2020-21.
As on 30.09.2022, out of 65,141 RKM of the BG network of IR (including KRCL), 53,098 BG RKM have been electrified, which is 81.51% of the total BG network.
Electrification in Southern Railway
In line with Indian Railways’ ambitious Mission 2023 Electrification, Southern Railway has fast-tracked its electrification projects. Presently, Southern Railway has electrified 83.93% of its network,i.e. 4270 route Kilometers out of its total network of 5087 route kilometers. In 2021-2022, a total of 598 route kilometers were brought under electrified traction in the zone. In the first-half of 2022-23 (April-September 2022), a total of 68.64 route Kilometers of Southern Railway was electrified which include Dindigul – Palani (58.26 Km) and Nagappatinam – Velankanni (10.38 Km) sections.
