Railways use less water to clean trains

In a year the city is facing an unprecedented water crisis, the railways are doing their bit to save it, reports Shashank Rao.

In a year the city is facing an unprecedented water crisis, the railways are doing their bit to save it.

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Both the Central and Western Railway have introduced mechanised jet cleaners to clean suburban trains. Mechanised jet cleaners work in the same way as that of the conventional pipe-and-scrub method.

However, the force with which the water leaves the jet cleaner helps reduce the amount of water needed for cleaning.

While the CR has brought down the amount of water used by 15 per cent, WR has reduced usage by more than 25 per cent.

“We have managed to curtail the use of water by one-third. We are also in process of identifying 60 borewells,” said WR General Manager R.N. Verma.

Six months ago, WR used to consume 1,600 litre of water to clean one coach in the conventional method, now it uses 1,100 litre.

Earlier it needed 40 litre of water to wash toilets of outstation trains, now it has come down by half.

WR has called for tenders asking private contractors to identify borewells between Churchgate and Virar at an initial cost of Rs 63 crore.

By March-end, Western Railway will select the contractor, who will then have three months to dig the borewells.

The Central Railway, too, has reduced consumption of water from 13 lakh litre per day to 11.5 lakh litre per day at its yard at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

“We are trying to economise the use of water by installing mechanised jet cleaners,” said S. Mudgerikar, chief public relations officer, CR.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation earlier used to supply about two lakh litre of water to the railways and other bulk consumers every day.

Two months ago, it sent these consumers a circular asking them to arrange for alternate sources of water for non-potable use.