World Environment Day 2022 observed on Central Railway in line with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiated activities focussing on this year’s theme “Only One Earth”.
Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager, Central Railway laid the foundation stone of 200 Kiloliter Daily (KLD) Sewage Treatment Plant at New Coaching Complex, Wadi Bunder, Mumbai. A.K. Gupta, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, Shalabh Goel, Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai Division and other Principal Heads of the Departments, Divisional branch officers were present on the occasion.
On the occasion Dr. Rajesh Biniwale, Senior Principal Scientist, from National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) was also present and explained the importance of these sewage treatment plants in environmental sustainability.
Anil Kumar Lahoti while addressing the gathering said that Central Railway has won the Environment and Cleaniness shield at the National Railway Awards Function recently third time in a row. It shows the commitment CR has towards environment. He also said CR has Rain water harvesting units at 158 locations, 3 automatic coach washing plants which has helped in water conservation. More water sewage water treatment plants will be installed in the coming years inching towards a zero discharge establishment.
He also said that CR in its efforts to revive and restore the eco system through massive plantation drives planted more than 5 lakh trees across various locations, 3 miyawaki plantations viz. 2 at Bhusaval and one at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus; 15 nurseries, one oxygen parlour, herbal garden with 85% survival rate.
CR has 32 water treatment plants for treating sewage and effluents through which more than one crore liter of water everyday which comes as a sustainable solution to the growing water crisis besides eliminating the discharge of polluted water into the environment.
- Anil Kumar Lahoti said that - waste management is significant chapter for a vast transport organization like railways that deals with millions of passengers and transportation activities. CR has installed compost bins and compost tumbler plants in converting food, vegetable and fruit waste to good compost for using in gardens at Bhusaval and Lonavala stations, railway colony at Pune and Matunga Workshop. 48 plastic bottle crushing machines across 37 stations to combat plastic menace. CR has 100% bio-toilets fitted in all coaches of trains helping in maintaining fresh and a healthy environment.
He said CR has 7.4MWp solar plants installed capacity and targeted 5MWp for coming year. He also said that Central Railway has 3 stations CSMT, Nagpur and Solapur which has IGBC Gold certification and 77 stations ISO certification as eco-smart stations. Lahoti said we should try for more stations to get IGBC certification which will not only save the cost but also preserve environment.
