Railways assures full 'quick watering system' by March '19

New Delhi: Indian Railways aims to achieve its target to speed up the automatic quick watering system by March 2019. The ministry has pointed out total 142 stations across all the zones.

Even recently, the rail board also sanctioned Rs 300 crore for the project. The ministry claims that 35 per cent complaints are for the water supply system in the trains, therefore there is a need for revamping the water supply system for each coach, especially for long-run trains.

The ministry has planned to install pressure pumps of 40 horsepower to increase the water pressure so that

trains can refill water in five minutes.

"Currently the system takes almost 20 minutes to refill each coach, where the halt time is approx five minutes of trains. So every time it (trains) cannot refill water fully and there are complaints. We are trying to use the SCDA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system," Rajesh Agarwal, a railway board official told.

He further added, "There are 10000-15000 trains and 7000 stations across the country. In every 200 km, there is water refilling stations. Therefore we have identified 140- 142 stations across the country and for every station we have allotted Rs. 2 crore for the project."

Meanwhile, all the General Managers across all zones of Indian Railways have been notified to take stock of the present condition of the water refilling system. The water capacity of each train is 2000 litre. "Not only to install the pump, but we also need to replace the entire existing system according to its capacity. The power backup system will be installed to avoid the power disruption," Gautam Dutta, chief Rolling Stock Engineer (Coaching) said.

CAMTECH, Gwalior, an RDSO unit has developed the SCADA system. Through an open tender, the contract will be given to the local contractors, the ministry informed.