The coach washing plants have been installed at 73 locations
The Railways Ministry often uses its social media handles to share fascinating pictures of railway stations across India and keeps followers up to date with the developments happening in the railways. The ministry also shares interesting facts and information about trains and their many services. This time, the Ministry shared a video showing trains, including Vande Bharat Express, being cleaned at an automatic coach washing plant.
''Maintaining high standards of Cleanliness,'' Ministry of Railways wrote while sharing the video. As per the video, the coach washing plants have been installed at 73 locations, which minimise the usage of water and money. These plants are capable of washing the exterior of a rake of 24 coaches in about 15-20 minutes.
Watch the video here:
In a similar video shared last year, the Railways claimed that the plants are equipped with ''outstanding features'' such as high-pressure water jets and horizontal and vertical rotating brushes. ''Automatic Coach Washing Plants enable eco-friendly and efficient coach washing at higher efficiency and reduced requirements,'' the Railways stated.
It also has an effluent treatment system and water-softening plants for the use of soft water for external washing.
Back in October, The Indian Railway introduced the '14 minutes of miracle' concept for the speedy cleaning of trains, starting with 29 Vande Bharat trains at their respective destination stations across the country. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Vande Bharat trains will be cleaned within 14 minutes under the initiative to improve their punctuality and turnaround time.
The process involves the deployment of staff in coaches for dry and wet mopping of the interiors and exteriors of the coaches and the collection of garbage bags and suitable disposal of the waste to ensure Swachhata. The initiative is based on the concept of '7 minutes of miracle' at various stations such as Osaka, and Tokyo in Japan where bullet trains are cleaned and made ready for another journey within seven minutes.
Currently, several coaches are still being manually cleaned, a process that is time-consuming and labour intensive, and also consumes a lot of water.