Automatic coach washing plant to be set up in Odisha’s Puri

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to save water required for cleaning trains, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to set up an automatic train washing plant at Puri coach maintenance depot, which will become the first-of-its-kind in Odisha.

The estimated cost of each automatic coach washing plant is approximately Rs 2 crore and it can clean an empty train rake in about 20 minutes, an official from ECoR said, adding “the plant would be set up by end of 2019.”

The automatic plant will require only 6000 litres to clean a rake out of which 4000 litres will be recycled water.

As per the calculation, one depot will save 1,24,000 litres of water per day and 453 lakh litres per year once the plant is operational.

The cumulative saving of fresh water will be to the extent of 450 million litres per annum for 10 depots, the official said.

The coach exterior will get properly cleaned.  It will also clean dust, dirt and other such deposits.  The cleaning of coach/ train will be done while passing through a nominated line of the coach maintenance depot.  While at present, the coaches are being cleaned in static or stationary position.  A suitable alkaline detergent compatible with the body and paint of the coach will be used for washing.

The ECoR has already placed orders with COFMOW (Central Organisation for Modernization of Workshops), New Delhi, an autonomous organization under Ministry of Railways. Tenders have been finalized by COFMOW and it is expected that the plant would be set up at Puri latest by December 2019, an official said.

A team had already visited Puri in this regard and the work will begin soon, he added.

Similar coach washing plants are also being processed at Bhubaneswar and MEMU Shed at Khurda Road.

Efforts in this direction are being made by the Mechanical Department of East Coast Railway led by Manas Poddar, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, the official said.

This model of automatic coach washing plant is working successfully at WADI in Central Railway.

Likewise, another such plant will be set up at Visakhapatnam Coach Maintenance Depot, which comes under the ECoR.