The Central Railway is set to harness the power of the sun. Veggie farms along the rail tracks will now be passé and one will soon see solar panels along acres of empty land along rail tracks.

In a major shift in policy, the Central Railway on Wednesday decided to use empty rail land to set up solar panels instead of vegetable farms unlike it was done before. The policy is not only expected to prevent encroachment but also yield savings of R107 crore in power bills. "Central Railway has identified vacant trackside stretches and unutilised land parcels to set up land-based solar power panels with a capacity of 109 MWp (Mega Watt peak), which is used to run trains. These solar panels are expected to generate 143 million units of energy per year," a senior official said.