The Delhi Metro, an extra ordinary engineering marvel is considered as the best in the world. With a total operational length of 327 km with 236 stations en route, the Delhi metro has joined the golden club of London, Shanghai, Beijing and New York metro network that have a metro network length of more than 300 kilometers.
It is believed that India doesn’t have only tallest escalators but small and deepest stations in the world. In 2011, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation became the world’s first railway network to earn carbon credits from the United Nations for helping cut Greenhouse gas emissions by almost 6,30,000 tonnes annually.
Delhi Metro pure dedication and commitment to provide Environment friendly system across India. As part of it, DMRC had set its own solar mission, for which DMRC had been installing Solar PV(Photo-voltaic) power plants at various locations in the existing and upcoming networks of DMRC.
DMRC will soon start getting solar power from Rewa Solar Power Project based in Madhya Pradesh. On Thursday, DMRC received 27 MW power from the project and it will slowly and steadily will increase to 99 Mega watt over period of time.
The power received from Rewa will be utilized for the operational as well as auxiliary requirements of the Delhi Metro. Till now, the solar power generated by the roof top solar plants installed in DMRC premises were utilized for the auxiliary requirements such as lighting & air conditioning of stations, depots etc, a statement by the DMRC read.
Rewa Ultra Mega Solar is a solar power plant in the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, with a total solar plant capacity of 750 MW. It is one of the largest single-site solar power plants in India and the world.
With a shift to solar energy, DMRC is expected to save Rs 41 crore. Currently DMRC uses solar energy for almost 60% of its electricity needs. It plans to run all its operations on solar by 2021. Once it is completed, it would become the world’s first 100% green energy metro rail network.
It has also received Platinum rating by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) to all station buildings on its Phase-III network.
The DMRC’s shift to solar energy will be extremely beneficial for the national capital. The city was ranked as the sixth most polluted city of the world in the air quality data compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO).