Mumbai: The Central Railway (CR) has decided to install MEGHDOOT -atmospheric water generator - (water from the air) kiosks at 17 locations on its six stations in Mumbai Division under a non-fare revenue scheme including CSMT, Dadar, Kurla, Thane, Ghatkopar, and Vikhroli.
M/s. Maithri Aquatech Pvt Ltd has been awarded a contract for setting up the kiosks in Mumbai Division for five years. The company will pay Rs 25,50,000 per year (Rs 1,50,000 per year for each kiosk).
Under this contract, five kiosks each will be set up at CSMT and Dadar, four at Thane, and one each at Kurla, Ghatkopar and Vikhroli which will start functioning by the end of this year.
An atmospheric water generator (AWG) is a device that extracts water from ambient air. The technology utilises the science of condensation to extract water vapour from the surrounding atmosphere.
MEGHDOOT uses innovative technology to convert water vapour into fresh and clean drinking water.
The technology allows operation in a wide variety of temperatures (18 degree Celsius-45 degre Celsius) and relative humidity conditions (25 per cent- 100 per cent). It produces water within hours after being switched on; hence it can be used as an instant solution for potable water.
A senior railway officer said, “In this system, instead of taking source water for filtration and consumption, water is directly harvested from the air through a series of steps. Under this, air flows into the machine through a filtration system duly filtering out the contaminants present in the moisture-laden air.”
The filtered air passes through the cooling chamber where it is condensed and converted into water and drops taken to a storage tank.
The dropped water from the tank passes through multiple level filtration which removes odour and other impurities and then it passes through ultra violet (UV) system, the official added.
The water will contain essential minerals and will fulfill the norms of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and also Indian standards for consumption. It is also approved by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti as a safe and healthy drinking water.
