Railways deploys special rake bearing drinking water to flood-hit state

Mumbai: Western Railway (WR), acting on the directions of the Union home ministry, has prepared a special rake comprising 29 water tanks to combat the lack of potable water in Kerala.

The rake, which departed from Pune on Saturday, is being sent to Kayamkulam Junction in Kerala bearing 14.50 lakh litres of potable water.

WR’s Ratlam division filled 15 wagons while Pune division of the Central Railway (CR) filled the remaining 14 wagons. Generally, wagon trains run at a speed of 25 kmph, but this train will run at 60 kmph.

A senior CR official, requesting anonymity, said that the decision to send the potable water was taken after a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority and the home ministry at New Delhi on Thursday. The WR cleaned the water tanks and prepared the special rake. He added that each wagon tank has a capacity of 50,000 litres.

As it was taking time to fill the tanks at Ratlam, 14 empty tanks were dispatched to Pune on Friday evening for filling.

He said, “Fifteen wagon tanks departed from Ratlam at 8 pm on Friday and reached Pune on Saturday evening. Later, after a safety certificate was issued, the train departed from Pune at 5.25 pm. The train will reach Kayamkulam after covering 2,650km.”

Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer of WR, said, “All 15 tanks of the water special train were filled with potable water and the quality of water of each tank was tested before its dispatch.”

“Southern Railway has also dispatched water special comprising seven wagons. A total of 2,740 cartons of bottled water from Parassala Rail Neer plant has also been sent while 10,000 cubic boxes of water bottles are being sent to the state," Mr Bhakar added.