Technology
Dual-mode locomotives poised to offset electrification delays
Railway electrification in India has been a phenomenon where much has been aspired but very little achieved. The government has always wished that diesel traction is phased away so that the annual import bill of billions of litres of diesel is controlled. Besides, the growing environmental concerns associated with burning of a fossil fuel like diesel can be mitigated. Railway electrification is never an easy task because it has to be carried out on live and running tracks. Railway electrification has by and large been a tardy process except in recent years (See Box: Pace of Electrification). However, the task of 100 per cent railway electrification remains elusive.