In order to provide advanced technology in the maintenance work of trains, a high capacity crane with a lifting capacity of 140 tons was successfully tested at Mau Coaching Depot of Varanasi Division of North Eastern Railway (NER). With the availability of this high capacity crane in Mau, it will be very useful in relief operations in the sections up to Shahganj, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Chhapra. These types of high capacity cranes are available only at NER Headquarters in Gorakhpur apart from Lucknow of Northern Railway (NR) and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn of East Central Railway (ECR) in this region.
With the availability of this crane, there will be immense convenience in lifting of coaches/wagons, accident relief and other works in the nearby areas of Mau. This crane was successfully tested under the supervision of Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer Anubhav Pathak. Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Vineet Kumar Srivastava and Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer (PCME) have congratulated all concerned officers on this achievement.
Meanwhile, the commissioning of Automatic Coach Washing Plant at Chhapra Coaching Depot of this Varanasi Division area of NER has also been done. The washing capacity of this plant is 70 to 80 machines per hour and 300-350 machines per day. Through this plant, the entire rake (24 coaches) can be washed in just seven to eight minutes. It uses only 300 litres of water for washing one coach, whereas the conventional washing system consumes about 1,500 litres of water per coach. This plant will save about 1,200 litres of water per coach.
The chemical used by the plant for washing is eco-friendly. The facility is equipped with an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and Water Softening Plant (WSP) which helps in reusing and recycling water. It uses only 20 per cent fresh water and the remaining 80 percent water is used by recycling dirty water. With reduced water usage and recycling, an ACWP (actual cost of work performed) coach consumes 96 per cent less water than conventional methods of washing. Thus it also helps in reducing excessive groundwater exploitation. It uses high pressure soap solution and water jets along with vertical and horizontal rotating nylon and cotton-tipped brushes to clean the entire exterior of the coach, ensuring high quality cleaning and saving water as well. It also saves the time taken in cleaning and greatly reduces the human labour.
According to the DRM, an automatic mud washing plant was started at Banaras Coaching Depot of Varanasi Division and after which it has been installed at Aunrihar and Chhapra respectively. Along with an automatic coach washing plant, ETP of 30,000 litres capacity has also been installed. This treatment plant will recycle the waste water after cleaning, so that the water can be used again.
He said that the traditional method of washing takes more time to clean the trains and also consumes a lot of water. Despite this, the cleaning of train coaches is not done in a hygienic manner but now 80 per cent of the water used for cleaning can be recycled and used again, Srivastava added.