CNG and bio-diesel dual-fuel engines will be introduced onto railways in India after a successful laboratory trial, according to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report. Minister of State for Railways, K H Muniyappa, said trials have been completed on trains and one power car of a DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) train. An earlier trial run has also been carried out successfully by Northern Railway on engines hauling local trains.
The trials were parts of initiatives by the Indian Railways Organisation for Alternative Fuels (IROAF), an autonomous body under the ministry of railways, which called for tenders late 2008 to convert a conventional engine of a Diesel Power Coach (DPC) into a dual-fuel engine using CNG. The goal is to reduce pollution and spiralling fuel bills, with trains consuming more than two millions litres of diesel per year, according to a report by Times of India in November 2008.
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