Water Train Arrives In Latur To Cheers - And Competing Claims Of Credit

Latur: Cheers filled the air as a train carrying five lakh litres of water pulled into Latur early this morning, several hours behind schedule and with far less water than originally planned.  

Latur, nearly 500 kilometers from the state capital of Mumbai, has been scorched by drought.

A few hours after the train arrived, supporters of the BJP climbed onto the train to plaster it with a poster thanking Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu for the intervention.

Congress leaders, including the local mayor Akhtar Shaikh, who received the train said they deserve some recognition because the local corporation is run by their party.  "I visited the President and got the assent of union minister Venkaiah Naidu," the mayor said.
 The train with 10 wagons specially designed to hold and transport water took 18 hours to cover what was meant to be a six-hour journey from Miraj in western Maharashtra to its destination.

"This was a trial run. Speed is not a consideration," Latur Collector Pandurang Pole told NDTV.

At Latur station, the wagons were connected to plastic pipes which routed the water into a massive cement pipe freshly laid along the tracks. From there, the water flowed into a massive well, owned by a local farmer and empty till this morning.  Then, special plants filtered the water to make it safe, after which tankers started heading to streets desperate for their arrival.
 Marathwada is facing one of its worst droughts in a century. Seven of the 11 major dams in the region have gone dry.