Regrettably Northern Railways have not been able to keep the commitment of making identified railway stations and corridors Green. The commitment was made at the time of inaugurating the Katra Railway Station. The announcement at that time was hailed by the local people as well as the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visiting the holy shrine of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi for which Katra is the last railway station. The commitment came in the light of the fact that transporting of millions of pilgrims would mean great pressure on environment and ecology. As the 78 kilometre long corridor from Jammu to Katra passes through lush green forest track, authorities had rightly conceived the idea of providing Green toilets and Green corridors for the trains originating or ending in Katra.
The concept of Green Stations and Green Corridors takes into consideration adoption of the bio-digester technology for development of suitable bio-toilets to be fitted in passenger coaches in order to ensure disposal of human waste in an eco-friendly manner. Actually, the Railways had constituted a core group to study the possibility of installing environment friendly system of disposal of human excreta in the rail compartments to preserve the ecology. The system is aimed at minimizing the impact on environmental hygiene through elimination of direct discharge of human waste from toilets in coaches on the tracks and aprons thereby avoiding corrosion and increasing the life of track. The formal recommendation of the Board was conveyed in 2010 for the adoption of eco-friendly sanitation system in the rail compartments. However, in its recently submitted report to the Parliament, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has given very disappointing picture about the performance of the Northern Railways in this particular sector especially in the trains originating and terminating at Katra which is the last station for pilgrimage to Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine. The CAG says that only in three trains and only in just two or three compartments the proposed eco-friendly disposal of human waste has been installed while in rest of the trains nothing of the sort exists. Technically called Green Stations and Green Corridors, nothing of the sort was found existing when the CAG team physically conducted inspection of some of the coaches of Northern Railways terminating at Katra.
It means that human waste is not being treated scientifically and allowed to spoil the track and the environment and thus the very scheme of Green Stations and Green Corridor seems to have met with failure. Why the railways authorities did not take cognizance of the need of implementing the directions from the Board is inexplicable. The 78 kilometre stretch from Katra to Jammu has already been declared a Green Corridor and as such eco-friendly latrines in rail compartments running on Jammu -Katra rail line should have been worked out so far but has not been.
This is not the only woe for the people of Jammu region about the implementation of innovative scheme of eco-friendly latrines. The CAG has also reported about untidiness of rail compartments of railways plying between Katra and the rest of the country especially Northern India. We must also take up the issue of Jammu Railway Station which present most ugly and drab picture one can ever think of. In these columns we have written strongly about lack of seriousness on the part of the Northern Railway authorities who are supposed to look after the passengers embarking or disembarking at Jammu Railway Station. Jammu Railway Station is one of the most crowded railway stations in Northern India owing to the huge rush of pilgrims to shrines of Shri Amarnath and Shri Mata Vaishnodevi. Its expansion is long due. At present the entire railway station is overcrowded, full of filth, outdated for a number of facilities, absence of escalators and lifts, shortage of porters, proper passage from railway platform to the boarding sites for the minibuses etc. Jammu Railway Station improvement and upgrading demands a master plan worth thousands of crores of rupees keeping in mind the future requirements. Foremost of all, vacation of encroachments along the main entrance to the railway station is of immense priority. Why the Northern Railways are not realizing the significance and urgency of this task before them despite the fact that in the past railway authorities have submitted reports to that purpose.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel