Mumbai, June 5: Even as Earth Day was observed globally on June 5, and thunderclouds and lightning flashed their early arrival on the Konkan Coast, the Konkan Railway announced completion of all its planned safety works on its – 59-staion, 19980bridges, 760-kms-long, three state-connecting — route from KOLAD in Maharashtra, through Goa, to THOKUR (near Mangalore in Karnataka) and is geared up for the monsoon while highlighting proactively its eco-friendly activities.
With falling mountain boulders and soil slippages occurring during monsoons being major dangers along this route, large scale geo-safety works (Boulder Netting and Geo-safety works carried out on a large scale throughout Konkan Railway route to strengthen the cuttings and to protect the environment, besides afforestation being done in a big way throughout the Konkan Railway route.) executed along the railway line in last 10 to 12 years – alongside special focus on cleaning rainwater catch-drains and inspection of cuttings – have ensured that there has been no major disruption to train services on account of “monsoon boulder fall” in the last 5 years, according to KRCL officials.
“Monsoon Patrolling” by about 770 Konkan Railway personnel is being carried out – including on vulnerable locations round-the-clock — to ensure safe running of trains and Stationary Watchmen deployed for 24 hours at critical locations, besides BRN-mounted excavators being kept ready at all nominated points for quick movement in case of any emergency.
Loco train drivers have been instructed to run trains at 40 kmph speed if heavy rainfall limits visibility. Self-propelled ARMVs (Accident Relief Medical Van), with provision of ‘Operation Theatre’ and providing emergency medical aid, are kept ready all the time at Ratnagiri and Verna (Goa) along with ART (Accident Relief Train).
Mobile phones have been provided to Loco Pilots, Station Masters and other field officials, including Executives of all departments. Both Loco Pilots and Guards of trains have been provided with Walkie-talkie sets, while every station on Konkan Railway is equipped with 25 Watt VHF base station. Three Control rooms at Belapur, Ratnagiri and Madgaon, will work 24 x 7 during the monsoon period for ensuring safe running of train. Passengers can check train status on www.konkanrailway.com, or dial 139.
Meanwhile, even as the world observes Earth Day on June 5, the Konkan Railway is highlighting its adoption of cutting edge, eco-friendly technologies that promote sustainable growth in involving less maintenance.
Planting of “Vetiver Grass” on a large scale on hill-cutting slopes has proved to be quite effective in arresting the soil erosion, while — every monsoon — KRCL has taken up plantation of various local species of saplings along the railway boundary with 1,05,777 saplings in 2016-2017 and 1,11,311 in 2017-2018.
Other environment-friendly activities include: Konkan Railway is the first Railway to provide Bio-Toilets — developed by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defence — at its stations for disposal of human waste in eco-friendly manner. Organic Waste Converter technology is used by Konkan Railway — as an environment-friendly alternative to traditional means of waste disposal like landfill dumping etc – in the form of a waste-composting machine that converts all types of biodegradable waste (including kitchen waste, garden waste, waste food) into manure for maintaining its plants and gardens.
In a First in the country where energy conservation is concerned, KRCL has developed and provided an Intelligent Lighting System for stations, platforms and circulating area lighting, which is a need-based, computerized, and user-friendly system for switching lights off or on. The system is linked with movement of trains on real time basis, and operates automatically without any human intervention as an energy-efficient solution for station area lighting.
“Passive infrared occupancy sensors’ in officers’ chambers automatically switch off lights and air conditioners if the chambers are left unoccupied for more than a pre-set duration. This KRCL initiative of saving significant amount of wastage of electrical energy has witnessed it earning an incentive reward of Rs 20.95 Lakhs from the State Electricity Board for maintaining higher power factor in 2016-17.
To promote use of clean energy, the KRCL installed a 350 KWp ON grid-connected Solar Park at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra– which is capable of catering to full power requirement of Ratnagiri during day time – and will inject surplus power to the grid as soon as “net metering” system is implemented by the State Government.