Central Railway has installed an “Automatic Bogie Wash Plant” at Matunga Workshop to save water and increase the capacity and quality of washing of undergear parts of train coaches.
The recently installed “Automatic Bogie Wash Plant” manufactured under the “Make In India” initiative is the first of its kind that the Indian Railways has acquired.
According to Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager, Central Railway, the Automatic Bogie Wash Plant is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective option and another positive step towards automation in train maintenance and conservation of the environment.
"In this plant, all types of bogies can be cleaned in assembled condition with a pressurised alkaline solution in an enclosed chamber. The plant helps in minimizing time, water and manpower to complete the washing process effectively. Due to the automation, the efficiency of the plant and water recycling process, it is expected that this would reduce freshwater consumption by more than 60% as compared to manual washing" said Shivaji Sutar CPRO of CR, adding that this will also increase the daily capacity and cleaning quality of bodies.
The Automatic bogie wash Plant is equipped with a captive Effluent treatment plant (ETP) and the final discharge from the ETP meets the environmental norms.
The plant operates automatically upon sensing the movement of bogie through the unit and a bogie is washed within 45 minutes. Manually it took over one hour 30 minutes.
What is bogie?
A bogie is a structure underneath a railway vehicle body to which axles and wheels are attached through bearings. Each bogie is a 4-wheeled truck that provides the support for the vehicle body and which is used to provide its traction and braking. Each carriage (called a coach) has two bogies.
