With one of the empty goods trains consisting of 50 tank wagons having reached western Maharashtra town of Miraj from Kota in Rajasthan on Sunday, the people of parched latur in Marathwada can now expect first train — carrying 25 lakh litres of drinking water — to reach their town by April 20.
The first of the two empty goods trains carrying 50 tank wagons, which had left Kota on April 8, reached Miraj. Shortly after the train’s arrival, the authorities began to fill the train with water on a trial basis. Each wagon has a capacity of 54,000 litres.
Ahead of the departure from Kota, the workshop there had undertaken steam leaning, sludge removal, de-scaling, de-greasing and final cleaning of the wagons so as to make them suitable for transportation of drinking water.
Announcing the arrival of tank wagon trains at Miraj, Maharashtra Chief Devendra Fadnavis tweeted, “Railway wagons reach Miraj. Filling up of drinking water in process. Wagons to be sent to #drought affected latur soon”.
“Maharashtra Govt and @RailMinIndia is working hard to bring relief to people in #drought affected region of #Maharashtra,” the CM stated in another tweet.
In a separate tweet, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said, “50 tank wagons steam cleaned reached Miraj for latur. Water filling from platform line 2-6 pm today on trial. We do our best for drought”.
Talking to The Pioneer later in the evening, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse said, “The first of the empty good trains has arrived at Miraj from Kota today. We expect the first train carrying 25 lakh litres of water to reach latur by April 20”.
The second empty train, carrying 50 Broad Gauge Bogie POl Tank (BTPN) wagons, will leave for Miraj from Kota on April 15.
The Maharashtra Government will in all be deploying two goods trains to carry drinking water from Miraj to latur, involving a distance of 342 km. “Once both the trains arrive at Miraj from Kota, we intend to send two trains every three days. In essence, we would like to transport 50 lakh litres of water to latur every 72 hours,” Khadse said.
Miraj is a major railway junction in western Maharashtra. As per the plan drawn by them in co-ordination with the Central Railway, the State authorities will draw water from the Krishna river and take it to a local filtration plant from where it will be taken to the Miraj railway station by a pipeline and pumped directly into the wagons of the goods train stationed on platform number six. The water thus filled will be transported to latur.
latur, one of the leading towns in drought-affected Marathwada region, is currently witnessing the worst-ever drinking crisis.
Such has been severity of the drinking water shortage in latur town that the district authorities there have imposed an order prohibiting the gathering of more than five persons in areas around 20 water storage tanks and other sources until May 31, as a precautionary measure to ensure against any possible violence over water. The notified water sources include all tanker-filling points, public wells, tanker-plying routes and storage tanks in the district.