Pune Division , Central Railway & Persistent Foundation join hands to make Pune Railway Station a “Green Station”.
Pune Division of Central Railways has joined hands with Persistent Foundation for generation of solar power at Pune Railway Station in an endeavour to provide eco- friendly power generation which is an important step in eventually making Pune Station as a “Green Station”. In this path breaking initiative Pune Division and Persistent Foundation have collaborated to provide green energy to Pune Station under Persistent Foundation’s CSR policy. More than 1 Crore will be invested by Persistent Foundation in this project. The project is expected to be completed in about 5 months
Indian Railways is the single largest user of energy today and 23% of the expenditure of Indian Railways goes towards its fuel cost. Realising the limitations of fossil fuels both in terms of finiteness and environmental degradation Indian Railways has embraced the idea of solar energy wholeheartedly. Indian Railways plans to produce Solar power upto 20,000 MW by 2020. Minister of Railways, Shri. Suresh Prabhu has set his sight on generating Solar power through the PPP mode and Indian Railways plans to become the biggest producer of Solar Energy. The Railways have formulated a policy under which 1000 MW of solar power to run AC coaches for the next five years will be generated with the support of the Ministry of Non Renewable Energy .
Persistent Systems Ltd is a software company which was established on 30.05.1990 by Dr Anand Deshpande and has grown into a 2,000 Cr company employing 8500+ workforce. It has made its presence felt in various countries like USA, Canada, Europe etc.
Persistent Foundation, the CSR arm of Persistent Systems Ltd was formed on 29th October,2008 and is a registered trust under the Bombay Public trust Act 1950. Presently, the foundation primarily works in three focus area- Health, Education and Community Development in Pune, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Goa locations where Persistent System has its offices.
In each of these focus area the key areas of work chosen by the foundation for executing its own projects are as follows:
- Health: Child health, women health, health care for differently- abled and elderly people.
- Education: Education for poor, computer education & girls’ education.
- Community development: Village upliftment, urban upliftment and welfare of differently-abled & elderly.
The policy of the Ministry of Railway’s to rope in NGOs, Charitable Institutions , Individuals and Corporates for provision of passenger amenities at Railway Stations shall receive a major boost through this initiative. Persistent Foundation shall donate, install and maintain this solar PVs in the Railway premises at Pune Station.
The system which consists of approximately 600 PV panels will have a capacity of 150KWP and generate about 2,20,000 units of electricity per year which is expected to meet almost 80% of the electricity needs of fans and lights of Pune station.
This system has multi-crystalline PV cells with on line monitoring system through remote access. It will consist of heavy duty hot dip galvanised structures with 25 years panel life. As a result of this initiative, Pune Division will cut its electricity bill by Rs.22 lakhs annually. With the life of a panel being 25 years, Pune Division will reduce its electricity bills by a whopping Rs.550 lakhs in the long run.
In the present scenario of climate change and emphasis towards adoption of renewable energy resources, such a model shall go a long way in contributing towards a cleaner environment and sustainable development.
This project, it is hoped will pave way for other corporate houses to include Indian Railways in their CSR initiatives.
