IRCTC to provide cheaper packaged water at stations

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) As part of its plans to qualitatively upgrade the profile of passenger amenities, the Railways will launch tomorrow at Chandigarh station its pioneering project to provide packaged water at an affordable price to travelling passengers.

Accordingly, RO (reverse osmosis) quality bottled water will be available at Chandigarh station at a price of Rs one for 300 ml, Rs three for a litre and Rs 12 for five litres.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director P K Goel today said passengers would have to bring their own containers for filling the water. However, food grade pet containers would also be available for sale separately, he added.

''In the next fortnight, we plan to extend this facility at ten stations, including Patna, Lucknow, Asansol, Kanpur, Qazipet, Visakhapatnam, Secunderabad, Ambala and Hyderabad, on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model,'' he informed.

For implementing the project, IRCTC is in the process of setting up RO-based water vending machines (WVMs) at various stations.

The first such WVM has already been set up at Chandigarh station by Ion Exchange Limited, and it is to be inaugurated by Mr Goel tomorrow. ''We have decided to install 2000 WVMs over the Indian Railways in the next three years,'' he informed.

''The WVM units are RO-based and there will not be any leakage of revenue as the nachine is metered with microprocessor-based accountal system. The WVM will be manned by an operator,'' he said.

Dr Goel said the quality of water from WVMs would conform to the standards of bottled water, but it would be much cheaper.

UNI