The Hindu : Train coaches to get automatic wash

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 31, 2003

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Train coaches to get automatic wash

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 30. Washing of railway passenger coaches is all set to move into automatic mode and gradually manual washing may become a thing of the past.

A beginning in this direction is being made with the Railways going ahead with its plans to acquire at least five automatic coach washing plants. Indications are that more such plants would be inducted on a gradual basis in phases to make coach washing operations effective and swift.

The first global tender for the acquisition of these five plants to be set up in different parts of the country is likely to be floated soon. The official sources said that the process of finalisation of the tender by experts at the Central Organisation for Modernisation of Workshop (COFMOW).

The Indian Railways started thinking in terms of acquisition of automatic coach washing plants following the Prime Minister's announcement on the last Independence Day that the Government would launch a nationwide cleanliness drive. This resolve was reiterated later by the Government with the President in his address to the joint session of both Houses of Parliament in February this year stating that the first such drive would be launched on the Railways. To modernise and mechanise cleaning operations by the Railways, a pilot project has been started at Hazrat Nizammuddin with the assigning of mechanised cleaning contracts in November 2002. This important railway station is expected to serve as a role model in cleanliness.

As late as April 2003, similar contracts for mechanised cleaning were also awarded to private parties for the upkeep of the New Delhi railway station. The automatic coach washing plants will help the Railways to offer the services of neat and clean coaches to the passengers.

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