Plastic Ban at full-speed! Indian Railways to install plastic bottle crusher across stations
After the state of Maharashtra carried a bold decision for banning plastic bags, the Indian Railways is leaving no stone un-turned in supporting this movement.
After the state of Maharashtra carried a bold decision for banning plastic bags, the Indian Railways is leaving no stone un-turned in supporting this movement. In the latest development, the Railways have now decided to install plastic bottle crushing machines at 2,000 stations across the country. This new machine will help prevent travelers from throwing used plastic bottles on the tracks or at the station premises. Railway will give these bottles to plastic manufacturers. This step will reduce burden of plastic pollutants on the landfills. Earlier, supporting the Maharashtra government's plastic ban, the Railways had announced a penalty of Rs 25,000 for using this product at stations.
The crusher machines would be installed at platforms and at exit points. The crusher machine will cut plastic bottles into fine pieces. According to an IANS report, all 16 zones and 70 divisions are asked to install the plastic bottle crushing machines.
At present, used plastic bottles are disposed off manually. A huge pile of plastic bottles are thrown on tracks either by rail commuters or by illegal slums dwellers along the tracks. RITES, Idian Railways subsidiary, has been given the responsibility of providing project management consultancy for selecting the agencies for installing and maintaining the crushers, the report said.
The cost of disposing plastic bottles at smaller stations will be by the corporate social responsibility spends. For rest of the stations will be done through competetive bidding. An eight-year contract will be given the successful bidders to ensure viability and upgrade technology from time to time.
"At a time when plastics in general, and plastic bottles in particular, are being widely recognised as being extremely harmful for the environment, we are undertaking concrete steps to raise awareness to battle the plastic menace," a senior Railways official was quoted as saying.
04:33 PM IST