[thoma]

I just saw a scrolling news in the local channel, tried searching the net and stumbled upon this.

Railways working on development of LNG-based locomotives

Research Design & Standard Organisation (RDSO), the research wing of the Ministry of Railways based at Lucknow, is working on development of a prototype of locomotive based on liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Once the prototype is proven on field, Indian Railways plan to build another 20 LNG based locomotives on the same concept.

With the introduction of such technology, there is going to be a 50% reduction in operating cost of locomotives even at the current enhanced LNG prices. In addition, there will be an elimination of visible smoke from these locomotives and significant reductions in other regulated and unregulated emissions like NOx and so on, it said.

Click here to read the official press release.

How feasible is using LNG for locomotives? Are they going to utilize current diesel engines to use LNG? The nation's development is so dependent on fuel and based on this, isn't this a great move provided the prototype comes out good?

Mods, please move this to an appropriate section or merge with an existing discussion. I couldn't find any and saw that this section discusses a bit on locomotives.

[GullwingGT]

It is a nice initiative, at least will reduce the burden on economy due to crude import.
I spotted a test locomotive running on Bio-Diesel in Chennai not sure if its already been spotted. Hope these things reduce the over-dependency on conventional sources.