Railways will install automatic coach washing plants (ACWP) at Kochuveli, Ernakulam, and Nagercoil for exterior cleaning of rakes with substantial savings in water consumption and manpower.
In addition to these three places, the plants will be installed at Tambaram, Tiruchchirappalli, and at EMU car sheds at Avadi and Tambaram in the Southern Railway. These new 69 ACWPs are in addition to the ones installed at 29 locations across the rail network in the country.
While normal water consumption is 1,500 litres per coach, cleaning by ACWP will need only 300 litres per coach. The use of recycled water is 80% (240 litres) and freshwater use is 20% (60 litres). For Railways, the introduction of ACWP will fetch an annual savings of 1.28 crore kilolitres of water.
Exterior cleaning of coaches is done while placing the rake on washing lines (pit lines) through ACWP. ACWPs not only clean the exterior of coaches more effectively and efficiently, they also reduce water requirement by avoiding wastage. These plants come with recycling facilities thereby further reducing water requirements.
The Southern Railway has retrofitted 7,024 coaches with bio-toilets. This includes 4,536 conventional coaches and 1,392 LHB coaches.
According to Railways, the plan is to supplement the existing bio-toilet system with vacuum flushing system toilets (bio-vacuum toilets).
The bio-vacuum toilets substantially reduce the requirement of water for flushing. Railways have provided bio-vacuum toilets on 1,372 LHB coaches and it has been decided to provide bio-vacuum toilets on all air-conditioned LHB coaches.
As a part of the “Swachh Bharat Mission”, Railways have completed installation of bio-toilets on its entire fleet ensuring ‘zero discharge’ from coaches on track. Human waste led to corrosion of rails and fittings costing ₹400 crore annually, which has been avoided.
