Mumbai : At a time when low levels of water in the lakes have resulted in water cuts in Mumbai, Western Railway (WR) has taken an initiative to recycle 1.5 lakh litres of water each day. WR is all set to set up RO plant which will purify water coming out from the linen washing plant using reverse osmosis.
The move is aimed to reduce use of potable water by recycling it. The linen washing plant which itself is set up at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore supplies bed roll to all the outstation trains departing from Mumbai Central. The linen washing plant, where 30 people work in two shifts, cleans 6 tonnes of linen in 16 hours. The washing plant is also equipped with an effluents treatment plant which treats the water before discharging it.
Arun Singh, senior coaching depot officer of WR, said, “We are expecting to save 70 per cent of water that is now just thrown away once the washing is done.” The linen washing plant set up in Grant Road is the first of its kind in Mumbai City.
“The place where the plant is now set up was essentially a dumping ground filled with nearly 80 tonnes of scrap vehicles,” informed Singh.
The officials are working on setting up another linen washing plant at Bandra which will cater to those trains which will depart from there.
Washing linen in a plant is a costly affair for railways as one bed roll costs around Rs 25 which is much higher than work done from contractors.
Officials cleared that cleaning linen in their own plant may not be cost effective but it will help them in maintaining a particular standard and also increases the softness and durability of the material. This laundry has three washer extractors, two tumbler dryers, three flat ironers, two boilers, two compressors, and one RCD installation for high speed diesel storage.
Mechanised laundry in Mumbai was initiated on August 15, 2015 which is providing more clean, hygienic and soft bed rolls in outstation trains.
Western Railway has already commissioned state-of-the-art in-house linen care centres at Ahmedabad, Indore, Junagarh and Surat. This fifth washing centre near Grant Road station was parcel house of WR which later shifted to Bandra terminus.
