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In an attempt to conserve water, the North East Frontier Railway inaugurated its first-ever smart Automatic Coach Washing Plant in Guwahati. According to an official, the plant at Kamakhya coach maintenance depot can clean up 300 to 350 coaches per day.
"The system is equipped with controlled chemical and soap dilution, which ensures no pollution. It can save around 1,440 litres of water per coach in cleaning activities, thus saving 34,000 litres of water per rake of 24 coaches," NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Sabyasachi De said.
The official said that the railway authorities plan to install eight more such plants in Siliguri, New Jalpaiguri, Dibrugarh, Katihar, Silchar, Naharlagun, Alipurduar and Agartala in the future.
According to De, the water treatment plant uses only 300 litres of water and of which, 80% is recycled and only 60 litres or about 20% will be of freshwater.
Till now, coaches are manually cleaned, and the cleaning process takes more time and consumes a significant quantity of water, he said. Around 1,500 litres of water is required for every coach, the NFR spokesperson said in a statement. Cleaning of coaches through this new process also involves saving of manpower, thereby reducing the expenditure, he added.
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