Steps being taken to reduce water shortage: Southern Railway

Acting on reports of passengers forcibly stopping trains at Erode junction to give water for them, Southern Railway today requested them to understand the prevalent acute water shortage in the state and steps taken by it to alleviate their troubles to the extent possible.

"The passengers are requested to cooperate with the staff and not to resort to stoppage of trains, altercations with railway staff, or damaging the railway properties in rage+ a southern railway (Salem Division) release said today.

It said there is an acute water shortage all over Tamil Nadu and in fact all over the country due to scorching summer, resulting in drying of rivers, lakes and wells which are the main sources of water supply for Railways.

Despite this challenging situation, Salem Division was taking all steps to ensure watering of all trains to the maximum extent possible, it said.

Though originating trains are watered in all stations of Salem Division, Erode junction, being a Clean Train Station, where long distance trains and cleaned and watered in about 20 minutes, caters to about 133 trains a day, including mail, express and passenger trains.

To save time, high tech water filling systems called Camtech Water Systems have been deployed in Erode to quicken the water filling process.

On an average, a 24 rake coach needs 21,600 litres water (at the rate of 900 litres per coach), working out to 28.73 lakh litres in total for the entire train.

This requirement of water was over and above that required for the taps in platforms and toilets.

The release said the main source of water supply for Erode Junction is Cauvery River, which has dried up completely with patches of water.

Hence Salem Division has dug borewells near the river bed on railway land to fetch water. But even there, water was found far below palatable standards. So railway engineers are taking all steps to purify available water and supply for trains and the station.

Due to the muddy condition, the purification system’s filters fail frequently, ending with little or no time to set them right due to continuous demand for water.However works to set these right have been taken on war footing, it said.

Approaching stations to Salem Division, such as Palakkad, Jolarpet and Dindigul have been alerted to fill water for a couple of days due to servicing demands of the water filter systems at Erode, the release added.