Water Vending machines to be installed in TN railway stations

Chennai, May 26 (UNI) ION Exchange in collaboration with IRCTC today launched a new project to set up 'Zero B' water vending machines at railway stations across Tamil Nadu.

Chennai was the first location in South where this project was initiated to facilitate the quality drinking water process for common man in the railway stations at an affordable rate.

Talking to newspersons here, ION Exchange Vice President R S Rajan said ''Chennai is the first in line of project implemenation and in the near future we will expand this project to other parts of the South India by installing '300 Zero B' vending machines at 100 railway stations.'' ''Each vending machine has the capacity to produce 100 litres of pure drinking water, which would cost about Rs 3.5 lakh,'' he pointed out.

About the tie-up with IRCTC, he said ''IRCTC has awarded ION Exchange through the tender process to install 'Zero B' automatic vending machine to provide safe and pure potable drinking water for the commuters''.

The initative will also help to reduce the plastic pollution in the railway stations, he said adding ''moreover it is proven that even a low-level exposure to many common contaminants cause severe illness, including liver damage, cancer and other serious ailments over a certain time period''.

Mr Rajan said ''this facility is also a vital step to create more employment opportunities''.

The official also claimed that through these vending machines, customers will be offered more choice from pure and safe drinking water - Re one per glass for 200 ml, Rs two for 500 ml, Rs three for one litre, as compared to Rs 12 to Rs 15 per litre packaged water available in the market at present.

UNI