Secunderabad railway station gets quick coach watering system

Secunderabad: The South Central Railway has taken yet another initiative towards water conservation duly, taking advantage of technology by setting up a quick watering system for passenger coaches at the Secunderabad railway station here.

According to SCR officials, the quick watering facility not only provides a fast mechanism to provide water to all passenger coaches in a train, but also avoids wastage due to overflow and reduces train detention for want of coach watering.

Generally, each coach of a train requires 1,600 litres of water. Each train on an average requires around 40,000 litres to fill all its coaches. Carriage watering is normally done at the originating stations of trains. For those running longer durations and day trains, it is important to fill water at intermediate locations as well.

Watering at the station is being done for both originating as well as en route trains. In the normal course, it takes considerably more time to fill all coaches. To overcome this, the railway has a new method of carriage watering called "Quick Watering System" wherein watering of a train can be done within five minutes. It has been installed at the station here, said a senior officer.

Gajanan Mallya, SCR General Manager, has appreciated officials of the Secunderabad division for the initiative in taking up the quick watering system. He opined that extension of the facility at a busy station, like Secunderabad, will reduce the detention time of trains and also helps in both easing the congestion and judicious use of water.

Key features of quick watering system

♥ Automatic switching of pumps & valves depending on water demand to utilise all pumps effectively

♥ Remote operation planned by providing control panel at the end of a platform

♥ Adequate pressure is maintained by automatic control over discharge by pumps depending upon the load

♥ Interactive soft touch interface to manually select switching of hydrant line

♥ Pipelines are constructed in such a way that adequate pressure of water flow is maintained

♥ Watering of a train is completed within five minutes

♥ Pumps are with capacity of 20 Hp & Discharge of 100 Cubic. Mtr /min

♥ Safety relief valve to protect hydrant from high pressure

♥ Number of major hydrant lines: six numbers

♥ All pipes are leak-proof avoiding water wastage

♥ Adequate size & length of pipe so that it does not touch the ground and hygiene is maintained