Bhubaneswar, Feb 21: The East Cost Railway (ECoR) has decided to go in for installation of Automatic Coach Washing Plant at Puri and Visakhapatnam Coach Maintenance Depots.
The ECoR has already placed orders with Central Organisation for Modernisation of Workshops (COFMOW), New Delhi, an autonomous organization under Ministry of Railways.
ECoR chief public relation officer Jyoti Mishra said tenders have been finalised by COFMOW and it is expected that the plant would be set up at Puri and Visakhapatanam latest by December 2019.
The firm has already completed site visit at Puri. These plants are being processed under Environment Management Programmes.
Mishra said there will be less fresh water consumption in the cleaning of coaches. The coach exterior will get properly cleaned. It will also clean dust, dirt and other such deposits.
The cleaning of coach/ train will be done while passing through a nominated line of the coach maintenance depot. While at present, the coaches are being cleaned in static or stationary position. A suitable alkaline detergent compatible with the body and paint of the coach will be used for washing.
It is expected that each empty train rake would be cleaned in about 20 minutes’ time. There would be a number of sensors which would work as and when there is movement in the nominated line through the plant.
Similar coach washing plants are being processed at Bhubaneswar and MEMU shed at Khurda Road. This model of automatic coach washing plant is working successfully at WADI in Central Railway.
Efforts in this direction are being made by the Mechanical Department of East Coast Railway led by Manas Poddar, principal chief mechanical engineer, sources said.
UNI