CHENNAI: Southern Railway will get much-needed respite if monsoon sets in on time as stations are affected by water scarcity and managing with minimum supply.
Some stations like Egmore solely dependent on metro water are managing with the available water supply coupled with the water recycled after cleaning of coaches.
According to senior officials, there are days when the station doesn't receive even the minimum requirement of water from metro water due to scarcity in the state.
Chennai Central, Egmore and Tambaram witness huge footfalls on a daily basis and are dependent on metro water as well as supply from borewells.
According to a senior official in the railways, Egmore is the only station that does not have an alternate supply of water other than metro water.
“At Egmore, the daily requirement is 7.5 lakh litres per day. The minimum the station needs are at least 6 lakh litres of water daily to ensure that water supply, cleaning of stations, coaches go on smoothly. We have been reeling with shortage, so much so that there is no water to supply for water vending units. Supply for the last few days has been minimum,” said the offi-cial.
Chennai Central has a water requirement of 9 lakh litres per day that is 1.5 times that of Egmore station considering the number of passengers who use the station as well as trains handled there.
“Chennai Central gets decanted water pumped from Buckingham Canal apart from the water supplied by metro water. If the monsoons approach soon, it will be a boon to passengers and operations at the station as well,” an official said.
1 lakh litres of water recycled daily for cleaning, maintenance
- Water recycling plants at Basin Bridge and Egmore recycle water used for washing coaches on the pit lines
- The capacity of recycling plants is 10 lakh litres and 2 lakh litres per day at Basin Bridge and Egmore, of which 3.5 lakh litres and around 1 lakh litres of water are recycled daily and used again for cleaning and maintenance
