No more dry taps in trains
Posted on: 22/Nov/2017 2:36:53 PM - No. of views : (2898)
Most passengers would have experienced the irksome feel of finding dry tap when you�re hurrying up brushing or washing your face prior to getting down in your destined station! No worries anymore! There is going to be absolutely no such trouble. In trains, particularly long-distant ones, there were so many complaints from passengers. Hence, the Railway Board has directed the zones to incorporate a new technology that can fill the train tanks in all 24 coaches within ten minutes of the train arriving at the station.
At the Erode junction in Salem division of Southern Railways, this quick watering mechanism was installed in September 2015. There is also a better model of the same functional at busy Vijayawada station belonging to South Central Railway in Andhra Pradesh. The other zones are now instructed to set up this arrangement.
The stations where this system is approved are designated as Clean Train Stations. About 21,600 litres of water is needed to fill a 24-coach train. For every 30 km, water refilling has to be done. There are 4 tanks in each coach each with 225 litres of storage capacity.
There is one pump used for watering the coaches at regular CTS, say officials, adding that a few employees will have to do the filling manually and then direct the pipe to the next coach and so on. As this method consumes 20 minutes, the train will have to be stopped for longer, said a senior railway official at the mechanical department.
The system also has other issues. For example, when the lone pump doesn�t function properly due to insufficient pressure, there may be delay in the train running time.
On the other hand, in the newly proposed system, it hardly takes ten minutes to refill all the tanks in all the 24 coaches. This makes use of a multiple high power pump that will be functioned in parallel and surge the flow.
With this, it shall be possible to reduce the stoppage time in trains, as watering will be done quicker, say senior officials. So, ultimately, the average speed of trains will increase too.
This mechanism can be used to water at least two trains at a time, simultaneously, the officials added.
This system will cost about Rs 1.5 crore to be set up in 3 platforms. In Erode, the Southern Railways has incorporated this system. A proposal to install the same in Madurai, Ernakulam, Palakkad, and Kanyakumari stations is submitted too.
In Vijayawada, the system was incorporated along with a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA system). This is helpful in water quality mapping when the tanks are filled in real-time basis. Hence, the overall cost was Rs 3.5 crore for installation. This will also ensure minimal water wastage and bring down manpower substantially.
