The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to go in for installation of automatic coach washing plant at Puri and Visakhapatnam.
For this, the ECoR has already placed orders with COFMOW (Central Organisation for Modernisation of Workshops), New Delhi, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Railways. The estimated cost of each washing plant is approximately Rs 2 crore.
Tenders have been finalised by COFMOW and it is expected that the plant would be set up at Puri latest by December. Similar position is expected for Visakhapatnam also. In fact, the firm has already completed site visit at Puri.
There will an effluent treatment plant which will treat the water for its repeated use, thereby conserving the precious water. In this mode of operation, huge brushes would be fixed to various machines which will be designed in such a manner that they clean the coach body side walls.
It is expected that each empty train rake would be cleaned in about 20 minutes’ time. There would be a number of sensors which would work as and when there is movement in the nominated line through the plant. Ultrasonic devices and photoelectric cells would be provided in the set up.