Railways comes up with innovations to tackle freezing of water in winter

Water and fuel have to be maintained in liquid form in sub-zero temperatures during the freezing winters of the north

A view of the Chenab Rail Bridge, world’s highest railway bridge, over the Chenab river in Reasi district. File | Photo Credit: PTI

The process of linking Kashmir to Kanyakumari through the new Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project posed a unique challenge to the Indian Railways — that of maintaining water and fuel in liquid form in sub-zero temperatures during the freezing winters of the north. To circumvent the problem of water freezing in toilets and in fuel tanks, engineers at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala have designed and implemented indigenous innovations. 

While the LHB coach design is prominently used by the Indian Railways, it did not have temperature control systems. In winter, temperatures in the J&K region plummet to minus eight to minus 12 degrees Celsius. “There is a problem if the water freezes in the tanks. The flushes and the toilets won’t work as the water won’t get circulated. There will be no supply of water in the taps. Another major challenge is that if the water tank is full, there is a hazard that it will develop cracks and burst, as ice has the tendency to expand,” Akhilesh Mishra, Chief Design Engineer, RCF, said. 

Mr. Mishra said that the RCF had designed double-walled composite insulated water tanks of capacities ranging between 450 litres to 685 litres. The water tank mimics thermoplastic bottles with two walls and an insulation layer of foam in the middle, which traps the air. “This will maintain water in liquid form in sub-zero conditions from 16 to 20 hours. The water may remain cold but it won’t freeze,” Mr. Mishra said. 

In another innovation, the RCF has borrowed technology from the defence services to tackle the problem of freezing water in the supply pipelines. “We are using heated pipes with a distributed heating system covered by insulation. The water will remain cold at five to eight degrees Celsius in liquid form,” Mr. Mishra said.  

To contain energy loss, geysers will be deployed at the point of use in toilets, where only as much water as is needed by the users will be heated. A similar technology is being deployed in the fuel tanks for locomotives by the RCF. 

The 111-km-long railway stretch from Katra in Jammu to Banihal in Kashmir is slated to be functional before March next year, when the national elections are due.