To promote tiger tourism, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday announced package tours to be conducted by the Railways to national parks such as Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh.

Presenting the Railway Budget for 2016-17, Prabhu said the Railways will offer complete packages, including train journey, safaris and accommodation to cover the wildlife circuit.

The minister said the Railways would also partner with state governments for operating tourist circuit trains and explore the possibility of revenue sharing model.
Prabhu also announced a slew of initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of the Railways.

“We have decided that all railway stations will be covered with LED luminaire in the next two to three years,” he said, adding that the initiative would reduce energy consumption by up to 15% in non-traction areas.

The Railways will also harness the water management potential of its buildings by providing rain water harvesting facilities at all establishments having rooftop areas of more than 200 square meters.

“This comes from a realisation that out of the total potential of recycling around 250 million litres of water per day, we only recycle 20 million litres,” Prabhu said.

The Railways has also set a target of commissioning solar power plants to the tune of 1,000 MW installed capacity, particularly at remotely located railway stations. Prabhu said policy guidelines and tender documents for 50 MW solar plants at rooftop have been issued.

He said the Railways have also commissioned 25 MW windmill power plant at Jaisalmer and were working towards commissioning 132.5 MW wind power in the next year.

Besides, the Railways has also proposed to convert all production units as well as at least one workshop in each zonal railway as a green industrial unit.