TIRUCHI
The scientific approach adopted by the Golden Rock Railway Workshop at Tiruchi in disposing tonnes of accumulated zero value non-hazardous waste has evoked interest among other railway workshops in the country for emulation of procedures and safe practices.
Officials of the railway workshop at Hubli in South Central Railway besides those from the Loco Works and Carriage Works, both at Perambur in Chennai, have got in touch with their counterparts at Tiruchi Workshop seeking to study the know-how in place since January last year for the waste disposal.
The over 80-year-old Golden Rock Workshop, which had received the Gold Rating certification last June from the Confederation of Indian Industry for achieving the standards under the GreenCo Award for its best environmental management practices, had conveyed to the other workshops the utility of the waste as alternative fuel in the kilns of UltraTech Cement Limited at Ariyalur with which it had entered into a tie-up.
The other railway workshops came to know about the scientific disposal of waste being done at the Tiruchi Workshop also through the assessors of the CII which had given the Greenco Award to us in June, say senior workshop officials.
"There have been queries from various other railway workshops across the country wanting to know from us the method adopted in safe disposal of zero value non-hazardous waste so that they could follow the practice at their respective establishments", said another official.
Thanks to a tie-up with the UltraTech Cement, the Golden Rock Workshop had so far dispatched to the industry around 2,000 metric tonnes of non-hazardous and zero value waste accumulated for nearly two decades.
The accumulated waste in the form of cushions, artificial leather, seat covers, rubber belts and other rubber products posed fire as well as an environmental hazard.The agreement with UltraTech Cement is for disposal of 5,000 metric tonnes
Officials said they had even shared copies of the documents containing information regarding disposal of waste and environmental protection procedures with other railway workshops. The Tiruchi Workshop is involved in a myriad of activities including periodic overhaul of over 100 broad gauge diesel locomotives, more than 1,000 passenger coaches, and manufacture of container wagons besides periodic overhaul of steam locomotives operated in the hilly Nilgiri Mountain Railway.
