The Hindu : National : Two more 'Rail Neer' bottling plants to be set up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 02, 2004

National

National

Two more 'Rail Neer' bottling plants to be set up

NEW DELHI, NOV. 1. Buoyed by the success of its own brand of mineral water `Rail Neer', the Railways have decided to set up two more water bottling plants to meet the burgeoning demand of the packaged product.

While one plant is to be set up in Mumbai, the other plant is likely to come up in southern part of the country. These will be in addition to the two existing plants at Nangloi, Delhi and Danapur near Patna, which were set up at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore each.

The two pilot plants are capable of producing 1.2 lakh bottles of one litre capacity a day, with tamper-proof seal.

At a time when major mineral water companies are failing to adhere to the norms and causing persistent doubts in the minds of consumers, the Indian Railways are more than satisfied with the success of `Rail Neer'.

"Presently, we are able to meet only 50 per cent of the requirements by the rail passengers and new plants will go a long way in bridging the gap between demand and supply," Railway Board Chairman R K Singh said.

The Rail Neer was launched by the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar on May six last year on a rather low key note, but the positive feedback from the passengers have left the Railways with a lot to cheer about.

The project to provide quality drinking water at an affordable price (Rs. 10 for one litre bottle) has been taken up in view of the fact that an estimated 20 per cent of the packaged drinking water consumed in the country is in trains and railway stations.

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the catering arm of the Railways, is currently looking after the production and supply of Rail Neer. The plants are completely owned by the IRCTC and the equipment has been supplied by the Mumbai-based Ion Exchange Ltd.

IRCTC Managing Director M.N. Chopra said the high norms of hygiene and cleanliness were being observed in its `state-of-the-art' bottling plants at Nangloi and Patna. He said despite the International standard quality of Rail Neer, there was no plan at present to enter the commercial market. "The immediate objective is to meet the shortfall in supply for the Railways," Mr. Chopra said.

Rail Neer is available at railway stations only, and the Railways Ministry has imposed a ban on the sale of other brands of packaged water.

The government had informed the Lok Sabha last year that the quality of the packaged water conformed to the stringent norms set up by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and also the European norms for pesticides residues.

The water passes through various stages of processing, including softener, ultra-filtration membrane, reverse osmosis, micro-filter, ultra violet filter, ozonation and calcite marble media, before being packaged. The entire process is monitored by a micro-processor-controlled machine control centre, capable of halting production at any stage in case of deviation from pre-defined parameters.

Former Minister of State for Railways Bandaru Dattatreya had asserted that the Railways took up the project on a no-profit, no-loss basis and it was only aimed at improving catering services on board and at the stations.

Asked about the non-availability of pantry cars in a number of long-distance trains, the Railway Board Chairman said the facility had been provided in 240 out of 680 such trains. The pantry car facility would be made available in 50 more trains by the end of the current fiscal, he informed.

"The Railways' inability to provide pantry cars in all long-distance trains is because of various constraints like non-availability of rakes, cost factor and technical logistics," he pointed out.

UNI

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