Indian railroads beginning blending biodiesel at Palakkad depot

In India, Palakkad Division introduced blending and dispensing facility of biodiesel at its Railway Consumer Depots(RCD)/Fuelling point at Palakkad in co-operation with M/s. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. Here, the High Speed Diesel (HSD) will be mixed with biodiesel up to 5% and used as fuel for diesel locomotives. This is the first of such attempt made by Southern Railway in the state of Kerala.

Shri Naresh Lalwani, Divisional Railway Manager inaugurated this innovative step at the RCD near Palakkad Junction station on May 19.  Present on the occasion were Shri Suresh. A, Chief Manager and Shri T. Sampath Narayanan, Deputy Manager(Consumer Sales), Indian Oil Corporation, Kerala State Office. Shri Mohan A Menon, Additional Divisional Railway Manager and Shri B. Venogopal, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer accompanied the DRM.

Indian Railways encourage blending of biodiesel 5% to 20%, with diesel fuel, to be used for its locomotives, aiming substantial savings in fuel cost. Railway pays INR48 for a liter of diesel when purchased in bulk amounts at present. However the cost of one liter of biodiesel is only INR39, which is a saving of INR9 per liter. The RCD at Palakkad fuels 20,000 liters of diesel per day for locomotives. The Division proposes to blend 5% biodiesel in the initial phase. This facility will be extended to the RCDs at Kannur and Mangaluru Junction within a short span of time. The fuelling depots at Palakkad, Kannur and Mangaluru Junction together fuels about 160,000 litters of diesel a day.