MADURAI
In a first of its kind, all four major railway depots in Madurai Division – coaching depots in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Rameswaram, and wagon depot at Milavittan near Thoothukudi – have got integrated management system (IMS) certification.
These depots have got a facelift with better working environment and safety and health standard to get the certification.
“Better working environment is a must for the workers to... improve their quality of service to passengers,” Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer Jay Prakash told The Hindu .
The four pitlines in Madurai that are known for scattered garbage, oil deposits and waterlogging have undergone a major change. “We have been taking conscious efforts to give a new look to the pitlines and catwalk (platform above pitlines),” Mr. Jay Prakash said.
All these depots have been cleared of garbage, and a scrap yard has been created in each depot with separate divisions for dumping brake blocks, iron, plastic and wooden scraps.
To avoid dumping of garbage collected from coaches, the catwalk platforms have been provided with small bins near every coach. “The workers can dump the garbage in the bins which would be collected in big drums and wheeled away in trolleys to the dump yard,” Senior Section Engineer R. Amirthan said.
As part of the environment improvement work, the railway officials have planted several saplings in the yards. The workers have been provided with shoes and helmets for their safety.
A major initiative in environmental conservation has been using high-pressure jet pumps to wash coaches. “On an average, over 100 coaches are cleaned in Madurai yard every day. Earlier, we were using over two lakh litres of water for coach and toilet cleaning. But, with high-pressure jet pumps, we conserve at least 50% of water,” Mr. Jay Prakash said.
The railway has provided a water recycling plant near Madurai yard to recycle water. “We have provided better drainage facility so that water does not clog in the yard. The recycling plant can recycle four lakh litres of water a day,” Mr. Amirthan said.
The waste water from a nearby mill is also recycled by the railway for its use. “The quality of recycled water is checked periodically and it is close to that of fresh water. However, recycled water is used only for cleaning, and we use fresh water for watering the coaches,” he said.
Till now, only Mangalore depot in Palakkad division had got the IMS certification.
Divisional Railway Manager Sunil Kumar Garg and Additional DRM P.V. Murali Krishna received the certificates recently.
