Tying up with GAIL, Indian Railways to use natural gas in production units and workshops

NewsBharati    31-Aug-2018
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New Delhi, August 31: Aiming to replace industrial gases like dissolved acetylene, LPG and furnace oil and high-speed diesel (HSD), Indian Railways will now have environment-friendly natural gas. This natural gas will be made useful for the production units and workshops of Indian Railways.

Creating an infrastructure for supplying natural gas to the transporter's workshops, production units, depots, and residential colonies, State-owned natural gas transmission utility GAIL (India) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Railways.

The Indian Railways in its statement stated that this MoU is a broad-based in principle agreement between GAIL and Indian Railways for creation of infrastructure and supply of compressed natural gas (CNG), piped natural gas (PNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for both industrial and domestic purposes. It added that out of 54 workshops and production units, 23 workshops had been identified in the first phase for replacement of industrial gases with natural gas.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani and GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi. Ashwani Lohani said the workshops would start using natural gas by 31 December 2018, adding the remaining workshops, PUs, railway establishments and Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation’s base kitchens would start using gas by 30 June 2019.
Indian Railways said that natural gas has the potential to replace about 8,44,027 cubic meter of acetylene, 2,35,4425 kg of LPG, 1,40,991 kg of BMCG and 5,500 kl of HSD or furnace oil worth Rs 70 crore per annum, saving the transporter about Rs 20 crore per annum.

Indian Railway GAIL Natural Gas MoU Ecofriendly Environment