January 23, 2015: The Western Railway spends a lot on poor lighting system in its local trains and this is a common feature. However, the scenario now is about to change. The Western Railway has initiated a project in which it has decided to replace the traditional fluorescent tubelights with energy efficient LED lights.
Railway authorities have said that the new LED lights are brighter and will lead to savings by cutting energy costs. The project was initiated in early January at Mahalaxmi car shed. Shailendra Kumar, divisional railway manager (Mumbai), Western Railway said that the authorities have replaced 500 fluorescent tubelights with energy saving LED tubelights. He also mentioned that the average price of a regular tubelight is around Rs 250, the LED light costs around Rs 1100 per tubelight.
The officials had pointed out that replacing all the bulbs with LED tubelights would be a costly affair, but they agreed that it has a longer life and can last for up to 5 years, in contrast to the 18 month lifespan of regular tubelights.
A senior Western Railway official justified the procurement of LED bulbs by saying that most of the electricity produced is used up in operating trains and that cannot be cut off. He added that installation of LED lights will help in saving by some units, at least and will reduce the power bill.
