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Names of union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal also feature in the second list of BJP's 72 Lok Sabha candidates.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said, rail network will be electrified across India and it is the only country in the world that is experimenting to convert diesel engines into electric.
This is being done in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment towards environment protection, Goyal said during Question Hour of the upper house of the Parliament.
“Till now six old diesel locomotives have been converted into three twin electric locomotives at Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi which is a production unit of Indian Railways,” Goyal said.
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Speaking about the cost to be incurred during the process, Goyal said that these conversions being prototype and since a lot of existing material from discarded locomotives were reused, it is not possible to ascertain the exact cost at this stage.
Goyal said, “these converted prototype locomotives are under extensive field tests and trials. The number of diesel locomotives is to be decided based upon the performance of the converted prototype locomotives.”
In reply to a supplementary, the minister also said that there is no requirement for conversion of metre gauge and narrow gauge into electric as the government is closing these barring a few places in view of environment or scenic beauty.
(With input from agencies)
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