The success of a waste management project undertaken at the Thiruvananthapuram railway station three months ago has prompted the Railway authorities to seek proposals to implement more such projects at other terminal stations. The Ernakulam and Kochuveli stations are in the reckoning.
The Clean Kerala Company (CKC) had entered into a tie-up with the Thiruvananthapuram Division of Southern Railway to manage waste collected from trains at terminal stations. The new waste management facility at Thiruvananthapuram station has provided value recovery worth ₹1.03 lakh in the last three months.
The Thiruvananthapuram station handles 60 trains a week. The new facility had turned around and streamlined waste management in a big way, said a senior Railway functionary.
IOC funds
The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) provided ₹25 lakh from its corporate social responsibility funds towards equipment for the facility, which is being managed by Clean Kerala and a Kudumbashree unit on the railway station premises.
According to CKC Managing Director Kesavan Nair, the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF), the main collection area for different types of waste, was set up in February. Working on the waste management concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle, the RRF reduced the amount of waste generated for landfill, said Mr. Nair.
Over the last three months, two tonnes of waste was collected daily from trains that terminated at the station. About 50% of it was food waste. Over the years, while trains were cleaned, the waste got dumped on the station premises and would be cleared only when it reached near unmanageable levels.
At the new waste management RRF facility, the Kudumbashree unit at the station segregates the inorganic waste into 10 categories, which provides input material for recyclable products.
