In an attempt to provide clean and unhygienic environment friendly railway stations to the commuters, Indian Railway would soon develop 41 railway stations as model stations falls under South Eastern Railway (SER) including Ranchi, Hatia, Muri and others.
The Stations will be equipped with world class eco-friendly and environment protection facilities and will be upgraded as eco-smart stations.
Informing about the ongoing beautification and development work of the stations, Senior Public Relations Officer (PRO), SER, Ranchi Division, Suhas Lokhare said that some up gradation work has already been started in connection with the development of these stations and concerned officials have been asked to prepare detailed project report for the remaining work. “Work is already in progress at the stations including Ranchi. A bottle crushing machine has been installed on the station premises. Similar machines have also been put up at Hatia and Muri stations of Ranchi Division.”
“These machines have made work for the railway authorities much easier in the disposal of the numerous bottles collected from the train coaches and the station premises on a daily basis. They also prevent the sewage from clogged thus putting a check on the accumulation of garbage,” said Lokhare.
The SER has already installed escalator at the Ranchi station and Ranchi station has an electronic toilet or e-toilet but the railway will increase the numbers of toilets to minimization of congestion.
Access to the unmanned toilet is controlled by a door which automatically opens upon inserting a five rupee coin in the slot provided. Once the door opens, the light also switches on automatically.
At the moment there is just one e- toilet which has been put up. This is a common toilet for both ladies and gents. If the toilet is dirty, then even upon inserting money the door will not open.
Indian Railway has also banned the use of plastic in the stations and, is promoting the use of thermocol.
The stalls at the station and the catering coaches also don’t use plastic bags and cups anymore.
The plastic will not be used in all the trains which originate from the State capital. All the lights at the stations will be replaced with LED fittings which consume much less energy some of them have been changed and light installing work is going on,” remarked Lokhare.
“For the beautification of the station a lot of trees were planted last year and planning is still on with the forest department for planting more trees”, added the officer.
The railway has also made provision for suggestions and feedback from the general public regarding the Eco Smart Station on the web page of SER.