Swachha Railways! Self-propelled railway track scavenging vehicle for cleaner tracks
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New Delhi, Apr 6: According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, a self-propelled railway track scavenging vehicle may soon replace manual scavenging and cleaning that is still practiced to remove human waste lying on railway tracks. Dr. Sharad K. Pradhan, has developed a Multi functional Railway Track Scavenging Vehicle.
Dr Sharad K Pradhan who is an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR) of Bhopal, has developed a Multifunctional Railway Track Scavenging Vehicle, with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), aligned with the ‘Make in India’ initiative. A national patent has also been published for the technology.
The self-propelled Road cum Rail vehicle equipped with dry and wet suction systems, air and water spraying nozzles, control system, and road cum rail attachment is multi functional and easy to operate. A display unit is provided for real-time control of the cleaning under drastically changing environment. It requires only one person along with driver to carry out the automatic cleaning of the railway track.
As the dry and wet suction is over, the water nozzles start spraying water jets to clear off any human waste or semi-solid garbage present on the track floor. Another set of nozzles spray disinfectants on the track to get rid of flies, rats, and other insects. The water jets completely remove the human waste and other wet garbage from the inter rail space zone.
Both dry and wet garbage are collected in different tanks, and once filled, it can be decanted at appropriate local municipal garbage collection point. A joystick-controlled telescoping suction pipe is fitted to clear the slurry from the trench parallel to the track. The telescoping suction pipe can easily be placed at appropriate position in the side trench to suck the sewage slurry. As this is a rail cum road vehicle, it can be used as a garbage transport vehicle from track to road by Indian railways. After pilot testing, the manufacturing industry can be associated along with Dr Sharad K Pradhan to produce its commercial version on mass scale.