Under the go green go clean initiative, the Mumbai Metro One installed 8,987 solar panels in partnership with a private firm and the energy generated is utilised for lighting, air-conditioning, lifts, escalators, pumps, etc. This has helped reduce carbon emissions by 18,000 tonnes till date, claim the Metro officials.
According to the Mumbai Metro One, the solar energy is one of the safe, inexpensive and eco-friendly source of energy. The rooftop solar panels require less maintenance and come with a long service life of 25 years.
This project got commissioned at all the 12 stations in 2017 and at the depots in 2018. Since then, it has generated around 20 million units of electricity valued at Rs 20 crore. The monthly requirement of electricity is around 24 lakh units of which four lakh is met through solar panels. Thus, Mumbai Metro One meets its 15 per cent out of total power consumption requirement from solar.
Furthermore, it stated that the cost associated with solar energy generation is around half of normal electricity cost.
The initiative has helped Mumbai Metro One save around Rs 2 crore annually. In addition, over the past five years it has undertaken a number of power-saving measures like switching over to LED from conventional lights, putting escalators on sleep mode, installation of automatic timers, sensitise and educate staff to switch off power when not required, etc. These initiatives have further resulted in additional power savings of Rs 1.1 crore annually.
Out of 4,00,000 units of solar energy generated by the Mumbai Metro One; 3,30,000 units are generated from 12 stations and 70,000 units from depot rooftops.
The Mumbai Metro is the first metro line that was commissioned in 2014. It runs between Versova and Ghatkopar. This line witnesses an average ridership of 2.60 lakh on weekdays, while the average monthly ridership in April was 65 lakh.
At present, Metro One makes 300 trips on weekdays and the gap between two train trips is of 4 minutes during peak hours and 6-10 minutes during off-peak hours.
