Mumbai: Now, train passengers at the CSMT can enjoy clean, mineral-enriched potable water harvested from the air. In a unique initiative, the Central Railway (CR) has installed five “Atmospheric Water Generator” (AWG) kiosks on platform number one, six, seven, fourteen and eighteen at CMST.
This is the first-of-its-kind initiative of the CR Mumbai division. The AWG is a device that extracts water from ambient air.
"Each AWG can produce 30-35 litre water per hour. It has 1000 litres of storage, 600-litre inbuilt water tank and 400-litre additional storage tank," said an officer of CR, adding that vendor will charge Rs 15 per litre along with bottle and Rs12 per litre if passenger brings their own container. Similarly, for 500ml water along with the bottle, passengers need to pay Rs12 and Rs8 if the passenger brings their own container. For 300ml water along with a bottle, passengers need to pay Rs7 and Rs5 if the passenger brings their own container.
Another official of CR said that the process of installation of 12 more such types of kiosks in the suburban section is also in progress.
"The contract for setting up 17 AWG kiosks over Mumbai Division of Central Railway under non-fare revenue policy has been awarded to M/s Maithri Aquatech Pvt Ltd for a period of 5 years at 6 stations including CSMT–5, Dadar–5, Kurla–1, Thane–4, Ghatkopar–1 and Vikhroli–1. The installation of five kiosks at CSMT has already been completed. Process of installation of this type of kiosks at above 12 stations is underway," he added.
"This is a much-needed facility, the railway must install this at all stations," said Subhash Gupta, President of Railway Yatri Sangh.
Similarly, Ketan Jain (34) of Dombivli said, "Most of the food stalls of stations sell only one-litre bottle, costing Rs15, but here passengers can purchase according to our need starting from Rs5." Mr Jain refilled his water bottle of 500ml at CSMT on Monday for just Rs8.
According to a railway official, these kiosks are being installed as part of the green initiatives and water conservation measures and developed under the “Make in India” concept by ‘Maithri Aquatech’ and named as “Meghdoot”.
In this system, instead of taking source water for filtration and consumption, the water is directly harvested from the air through a series of steps. Under this, air flows into the machine through a filtration system duly filtering out the contaminants present in the moisture-laden air.
Then the filtered air passes through a cooling chamber where in the air will be condensed. The condensed air is converted into water and drops into a storage tank provided for the purpose.
The dropped water from the tank passes through multiple-level filtration which removes odour and any other impurities and then it passes through Ultra Violet (UV) system.
The filtered water is dosed with essential minerals which are beneficial before it can be dispensed for consumption.
"The water produced under this system fulfils the WHO norms and also Indian standards for consumption. It is also approved by the Ministry of Jal Shakti as safe and healthy drinking water," said a CR official.
Charges
1 litre (with bottle): Rs 15
1 litre (without bottle): Rs12
500ml (with bottle) Rs12
500ml (without bottle) Rs8
300ml (with bottle) Rs7
300ml (without bottle) Rs5
