Mangaluru Central and Mangaluru Junction railway stations are among the 15 major railway stations for which Southern Railway’s Palakkad Division has obtained Consent to Operate certification from respective State pollution control boards.
The certification was obtained pursuant to orders passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which brought the Railways under the purview of the Water and Air Acts on December 30, 2018.
Subsequently, the tribunal directed the Railways to comply with its earlier order with respect to 720 major railway stations in the country, said a release from Palakkad Division of Southern Railway. While Southern Railway has 72 stations categorised as major railway stations, Palakkad Division has 15 among them.
Besides the two stations in Mangaluru, the division has obtained certification for Palakkad Junction, Ottapalam, Shoranur, Kuttippuram, Tirur, Kozhikode, Quilandi, Vadakara, Thalassery, Kannur, Payyanur, Kanhangad and Kasaragod, all in Kerala.
As part of the certification, all the stations were inspected by officials from Karnataka and Kerala Pollution Control Boards for compliance with environmental laws. Palakkad is the first division in Southern Railway in completing the certification process of all the nominated stations in the division.
ISO 14001 Certification
Palakkad Division had, in 2019, obtained Certification for Environment Management System (ISO 14001) for the 15 stations and completed energy audits in all these stations. Water audit has been completed in six stations. Southern Railway has plans to build sewerage treatment plants, material recovery facility, composting bin for bio-degradable waste and water recycling plant, among others.
Based on these actions and initiatives on the environmental front, the pollution control boards issued Consent to Operate certification to the railway stations. While Kerala State Pollution Control Board issued certification to 13 stations, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board issued certification for two.
Apart from this, Palakkad Division has completed projects for rainwater harvesting and solar power generation. With this, Palakkad Division has set new milestones in environmental sustainability, the release said.
