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WORLD CLASS AUTOMATIC COACH WASHING PLANT
Commissioned at LOKMANYA TILAK TERMINUS at
MUMBAI DIVISION OF CENTRAL RAILWAY
World Class Automatic Coach Washing Plant has been commissioned at LTT
Mumbai Division of Central Railway.
Following are the salient features of this plant:
1. Thorough exterior washing of a 24-Coach rake is completed in 20 minutes as
against approx. 5 hours required for manually doing the same job.
2. Cleaning process is thorough including window sills, venetian shutters and
other areas where normally the manual cleaning process is wanting.
3. Water recycling plant incorporates ETP and associated pumping arrangement;
result in 80% water getting recycled. Since otherwise also the water is more
efficiently utilized the overall net water consumption is around 10-15% of that
required in normal manual cleaning process.
4. Plant is located on Shunting Neck with the provision of magic eye which
ensures that plant operates only when the speed is between 5-8 kmph and
consequently plant does not operate in case of normal shunting operation.
5. Rake availability in case of secondary and RBPC trains can improve
significantly on account of above factors.
6. With the all around water scarcity use of such plant may became inescapable. Advantages of Coach washing plant over Manual Coach washing 2
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Traditional Manual Coach Washing
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Automatic Coach Washing Plant
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1-No consistency in quality of wash: differs
from coach to coach and rake to rake
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1-Consistent washing quality will be assured.
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2-Labour intensity work; hence subjected to
industrial relations problems of
absenteeism, discipline, dirty work, etc.
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Only one operator is required in 8 hrs shift
for supervision of plant due to its automatic
nature of operation.
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3-The time taken for washing is quite long
i.e. 3 hrs. for a train of 24 coaches. Rake
availability for passenger services is much
less which is a waste of scarce national resources.
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The time taken of washing is quite less i.e.
approx. 5 minutes for train of 24 coaches.
Faster availability of rake for passenger
services.
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4-Washing Platforms are required on both
sides of a train for its entire length as per
Railway Bd’s approved design. As more
time is taken, many of such platforms are
required to meet traffic requirements.
The consumes lot of space and is capital intensive.
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Automatic coach washing plant can be
installed on the yard line leading to the
depot ensuring washing of trains one after
another without consuming additional
space. Washing is done when the train is
moving at a speed of 5 to 8 kmph. |
5-Approximately 28800 ltrs of fresh water is
used for washing one train of 24 coaches.
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Approximately 1000 litters of fresh water
will be supplied by railway for washing of a
train of 24 coaches. Remaining water will
be re-cycled through Effluent Treatment
Plant. This is a great saving in water consumption as water is scarcely available at many places.
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6-Uncontrolled application of detergent
leads to use of excess quantity.
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Controlled application of detergent leads to
consistent cleaning and optimum use.
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7-Cost of washing a train of 24 coaches
works out to be approximately Rs.1758/-.
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# Cost of washing a train of 24 coaches
works out to approximately Rs.480/-.
# Total saving achieved is Rs.1241/-
# Cost of coach hrs. saved is=3172/-
# Total saving per train = 4413/-
# If the depot is handling 24 trains of 24coaches
Saving per day will Rs.4413 x
34 = 150.042/-.
Saving per year will be
Rs.150.042 X 364 = Rs.5.47
Crore.
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