Bhubaneswar: September 11: Reinforcing the commitment of Indian Railways for green initiatives, East Coast Railway is observing massive awareness campaigns since long time and discouraging the use of plastic in Railway Premises over its jurisdiction. In view of harmful of plastic to the environment, Railways have taken steps not to use single use plastic in its premises, especially in Stations, trains, resident areas and in its establishments.
General Manager East Coast Railway Shri Vidya Bhushan in a oath taking ceremony administered oath to its employees and officers not to use plastic in their day to day life and to aware others about the impact on environment. Later, General Manager along with other senior officials & staff participated in Shram Dan programme where plastic wastages have been cleared from Rail Sadan premises.
Government of India has taken a remarkable measure to impose a nationwide ban of single-use plastic like plastic bags, cups, plates, small bottles, straws and some specific types of sachets from 2nd October, 2019; the birth day of father of the Nation – Mahatma Gandhi.
Use of plastic bags is considered as one of the great issues that humans are facing in their modern life. Plastic bags are harmful to human health. Some chemicals from the plastic bags disrupt the normal functioning of hormones in the body, chemicals affects the health and it develops cancers or other major diseases.
Plastic bags are impacting the environment negatively. Plastic materials affect the environment as these are never degrade and are not easy to recycle. ECoR has also encouraged its vendors to avoid use of plastic carry bags. Similarly, employees are asked to reduce, reuse & refuse plastic products and to use reusable bags to reduce plastic usages.
Indian Railways have taken major steps for Green initiatives that includes, electrical energy generating from solar & wind saystem, installing environment-friendly bio-toilets in passenger coaches, electrification of railway lines, Use of LED Lights, plantation at railway track side, saplings, Water Recycling Plants, Rain Water Harvesting systems, etc.
Apart from the above, installation of Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines at Stations has taken a major role for this purpose. Steps have also been taken to minimise generation of plastic waste and its eco-friendly disposal.
East Coast Railway has installed 16 numbers of Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines at different Railway Stations over its jurisdiction. 06 Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines provided at Visakhapatnam Railway Station, 02 at Bhubaneswar, 02 at Puri Railway Station, 01 at Sambalpur Railway Station, 04 at Cuttack Railway Station and 01 at Khurda Road Railway Station. Other important Stations have also been provided with Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines so that, single use plastic bottles can be recycled.
It has also been proposed to install Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines over ECoR jurisdiction in near future. These include, 04 at Puri, 02 at Khurda Road, 02 at Rayagada, 01 each at Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Simhachalam, Araku, Jagadalpur, Balangir, Titilagarh and Kesinga.
Awareness programme are also being conducted to aware the train passengers and rail users to use this machine, so that the premises of Railway Stations will be maintained clean.
