Delhi Metro is world’s first railway project to be registered for carbon credits

Creation date: 10 January 2008

The Delhi Metro has become the first railway project in the world to be registered by the United Nations under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which will enable it to claim carbon credits.

Under the project, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will earn Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) for the use of regenerative braking system in its rolling stock.

This is the first time in the world that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has registered a project based on regenerative braking.

This is also the first Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)-funded ODA loan project in the mass rapid transit sector to be able to claim carbon credits.

The regenerated electrical energy provided by the braking system is supplied back to the over head electricity line to be used by other accelerating trains on the same service line. Overall energy savings provided by the system is about 30 per cent of electricity requirement.

DMRC can now claim 400,000 CERs for a 10-year crediting period beginning December 2007 when the project was registered by the UNFCCC. This translates to US$3.05 million per year for 10 years. The money available from sale of CERs will be used to offset additional investment and operation costs in project implementation; to stimulate research and development activities by DMRC to develop technology to reduce emission of green house gases; and to provide extensive training to train operators for optimum regeneration.

DMRC started the CDM project in September 2006 with support of the Japan Carbon Finance Ltd. Ernst & Young, New Delhi acted as consultants for the project while Germany-based technical service provider TUV Nord validated the DMRC project on behalf of UNFCCC.

DMRC is also working on a project to claim carbon credits for the modal shift of commuters from buses/cars to the Metro as tail-end emissions of such vehicles contribute to global warming.

The Delhi Metro presently has an operational length of 65.1 km along three routes. DMRC operates 70 trains of four coaches each from 6 AM to 11 PM at a peak-hour frequency of four minutes and carries an average of 0.65 million passengers on each working day. Presently, construction of another 120 km for Phase-II is going on which is to be completed before the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi in 2010.

Source: ITS International