Maligaon, June 28: Solid Waste Management in railway premises is very vital from environment point of view. Being the largest transporter of the Nation, Indian Railways is a bulk Solid waste generator.
The Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 notified by the Govt of India species the responsibilities of the bulk waste generators and emphasizes the need of segregation of waste in three different streams namely biodegradable, non-biodegradable and domestic hazardous wastes. Solid waste has to be managed by giving emphasis to prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal.
Indian Railways has taken a numbers of steps for disposal of Municipal Solid Wastes generated at Railway terminals in an environment friendly manner. With an aim towards proper disposal of solid wastes, Northeast Frontier Railway has also taken a number of new initiatives for conversion of wastes to energy at some locations.
Northeast Frontier Railway has installed and commissioned incinerators at places like New Bongaigaon Workshop, Kamakhya Mechanised laundry and Bio digester plants at Guwahati station and in Maligaon. A Bio- Methanation plants has also been commissioned at the Central Hospital, Maligaon.
Energy generated from wastes from these plants are being utilised for suitable services. Beside this N.F. Railway has also placed put in place system for organized segregation of Municipal Solid Wastes generated at stations like Dibrugarh, New Tinsukia, Dimapur, Silchar, Lumding, Guwahati, Kamakhya, Rangiya, New Jalpaiguri and Katihar.
The New Bongaigaon Workshop is one of the bigger workshops on Indian Railways. It deals with the maintenance need of Rolling stocks for overhauling of both ICF and LHB coaches beside freight wagons.
As large quantities of wastes are generated every day, an incinerator was installed at the workshop which uses these wastes for generation of steam, which is then used for cleaning oil carrying BTPN wagons.
This incinerator has a combustion chamber of capacity 1.5 MT per day. All sorts of solid wastes are being used in this incinerator for production of steam. This has lead to huge savings of HSD oil. The use of HSD oil has reduced from 14525 ltrs in 2019-20 to Zero till now during 2021-22. The use of Moya oil has also reduced from 6460 ltrs in 2020-21 to Zero till now during 2021-22.
A total savings of Rs. 8, 28,266/- per annum could be achieved apart from various environmental benefits. Similar benefits are also being achieved from the plants that were installed at Kamakhya, Guwahati for disposal of various types of solid wastes that are generated in nearby areas.
Hence, it can be easily said that N.F. Railway is not lagging behind in playing its role for creating a pollution free environment for our future generations.
