New Delhi: Indian Railways operates 19 Rail Neer plants across the country supplying safe packaged drinking water to passengers, with each plant capable of producing 1 lakh bottles per day, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Currently, the demand of Packaged Drinking Water (PDW) ‘Rail Neer’ in all the important trains and at stations is being met from the existing operational Rail Neer plants, Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the Lok Sabha.
The tentative cost of setting up a Rail Neer Plant in public private partnership model is nearly Rs 10 crore for a plant of similar capacity, excluding land costs.
Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been tasked with setting up Rail Neer plants at identified locations depending upon requirement and demand of Rail Neer over Indian Railways.
Vaishnaw in a separate reply in Lok Sabha said that Indian Railways is continuously engaged in mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery for all foreseeable hazards including fire incidents that might occur at railway stations and in trains.
The safety measures taken by Indian Railways at stations include provision of portable fire extinguishers, fire buckets and automatic fire alarms in relay and interlocking rooms.
Indian Railways ensures that its frontline staff is always prepared to address emergencies by giving them training on, Fire Fighting, First Aid Skills and Disaster Management have been integrated into the training modules for frontline staff such as Station Managers, Train Manager (Guards), Commercial-cum-Ticket Clerks, Loco Pilots, Assistant Loco Pilots etc.
Railway stations are equipped with control phones for the stations masters to immediately disconnect power supply to the overhead equipment (OHE) in case of fires from OHE.
Public address systems at railway stations can be used to guide the public for evacuation in case of emergencies like fires.
Electrical systems on stations are maintained regularly to prevent any chance of fire due to electrical short-circuit, the minister informed.
Indian Railways has a network of 177 Accident Relief Trains (ARTs), 100 high-capacity 140T Breakdown diesel-hydraulic cranes and 170 Accident Relief Medical Equipment (ARME) Scale-I placed at identified locations which cover the entire rail network.
