PATNA: If everything goes well as per the plan, Rajendranagar (Patna) and Dhanbad (Jharkhand) railway stations would soon be developed as model stations (MS) with world class eco-friendly and environment protection facilities under the East Central Railway (ECR). Besides this, the ECR is upgrading nearly 52 railway stations to the status of 'eco-friendly'.
Sharing this at a seminar organised on the eve of World Environment day on Tuesday, chief spokesperson of zone Rajesh Kumar said that a whopping sum of Rs 49 crore was spent in 2018-19 on a slew of eco-friendly initiatives undertaken across the zone.
“The railways has installed water recycling pants, ROS water plants, used bottle crushing machines and other facilities in order to promote eco-friendly habits among the passengers”, Kumar said, adding that a target to plant 1 lakh saplings in next one year has also been set.
A Swachh Map app has also been launched at the zone’s 16 railway stations including Patna, Hajipur, Rajendranagar, Muzaffarpur and others to monitor on-going cleanliness and sanitation drives through public participations.
“Sanitary napkin vending cum disposal machines have been installed at ECR’s 11 railway stations besides the installation of bottle crushing machines at seven railway stations on an experimental basis”, Kumar said. He added that bio-toilets have been attached with 3145 coaches of various trains in 2018-19.