The Alipurduar Division of the Northeast Frontier Railways has issued a tender for the installation of grid-connected rooftop solar projects at eight railway stations in the region.

The cumulative capacity of the projects is 151 kW. The last date for the submission of bids is May 27, 2020.

The prospective bidders need to pay an amount of ₹159,400 (~$2,116.8) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

In West Bengal, the rooftop systems will be installed at Alipurduar Junction (60 kW), Alipurduar Power House (6 kW), Golokganj Railway Station (10 kW), Kalchini Railway Station (10kW), and Dalgaoun Railway Station (10 kW).

In the state of Assam, the proposed rooftop solar projects are for Kokrajhar, Dhubri, and Salakati Railway Stations with capacities of 25 kW, 10 kW, and 10 kW, respectively.

For Gularbhoj Railway Station in Uttarkhand, the capacity will be 10 kW.

The description of work includes the supply, fitting, installation, and commissioning of these individual projects.

According to the tender document, the successful bidder must have completed similar nature of work in the past, and the average turnover of the bidder should be at least ₹5 billion (~$66.4 million) in the last three financial years (excluding the current financial year).

The Indian Railways is the single largest consumer of electricity, with about a 2% share of the national energy consumption.

In April 2020, Mercom reported that RITES Limited, an engineering consultancy company that specializes in transport infrastructure, had floated a tender for setting up 1 GW of land-based solar photovoltaic power projects on various zonal railways land across India.

In November 2019, Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Railways, said that the ministry had installed 95.67 MW of rooftop solar systems, adding that the ministry had awarded nearly 248.46 MW of solar capacity.

Recently, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) issued an order directing the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) to provide the Southern Railway with low-tension and high-tension metering connectivity for 4 MW of rooftop solar projects. The Southern Railways filed a petition with the state electricity commission asking it to grant connectivity and net metering facilities for the 4 MW rooftop solar project and for future solar projects.