Recently, a 1.2 megawatt solar power plant was commissioned at East-West Metro’s depot and control room in Salt Lake Central Park. It was inaugurated by Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi. The solar plant has been installed on the rooftops of two major buildings of the depot. Metro Railway had given the Rs 8.2 crore project contract to S G Renew Energy Kolkata Private Limited. The project has been built on a PPP model, it will operate and maintain the plant for 25 years.
The plant covers 60,000 sqm of the depot’s workshop and 3173sqm area of the ATO building, which has been constructed as part of 100 MW-peak rooftop solar generation projects for Indian Railways which aims to become “Net Zero Carbon Emitter” by 2030.
KMRC official said – “We draw electricity from WBSEDCL to run the train operations and power supply to the seven currently functional Metro stations. But we can now make use of the solar plant and save around Rs 45 lakh annually.”
