Indian Railways Launch First CNG Train

The Indian government, in the process of saving the environment, has taken a massive step towards going green by launching their first CNG powered train.

Suresh Prabhu, the Railway Minister flagged off the new dual fuel train, that can run on CNG as well as diesel, on the Rewari-Rohtak section.

Launching of the CNG train will reduce emissions by a huge amount and also decrease the transporter's fuel bill because the train will not use the same amount of diesel like a traditional one.

Over 20 percent of CNG would be consumed for the train to do a distance of 81 km in two hours. The Railways has plans to gradually increase this to 50 percent.

The Minister also stressed on the use of solar and wind energy, to help citizens depend less on energy produced by crude oil and its by-products.

A technology called fumigation was used to convert the 1400-horsepower diesel engine to run on CNG and diesel.

Integral Coach Factory at Chennai manufactured the two power cars and six car coaches, while Cummins supplied the CNG conversion kit.

According to a senior official, there will be more such trains that will run on CNG in the future, to cut down the consumption of diesel.