Indian Railways, like every year, organized an event on the occasion of World Environment Day, 2016. This year the event was organised by Ministry in association with its PSU RITES. Main function was held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi wherein Shri A.K.Mital, Chairman Railway Board was the Chief Guest at the valedictory session. The event began with a Seminar on ‘Waste Management in Indian Railways.’ An exhibition on various technologies available for water & solid Waste Management was also organized wherein a number of technology providers participated. Sh. Hemant Kumar, Member Mechanical, Railway Board inaugurated the Exhibition and the Seminar in the morning inaugural session.
The first technical Session of the Seminar dealt with the potential and the opportunities available through technology interventions for a comprehensive policy on Solid Waste Management. Various speakers and experts from technical bodies and departments gave overview and suggested roadmap for Indian Railways.The Second technical Session deliberated upon the possible interventions through Waste Water Management over Indian Railways. Expert speakers suggested various technologies which can be adopted for Railway establishments so that the recycling of waste water can be done for non-potable use. Both the sessions were attended by Senior Officers from Railway Ministry, Zonal Railways and Production Units. The delegates from technical institutes like NEERI, TERI, BARC as well as the MoUD, MCD presented technical papers. A few case studies from North-West Railway, Southern Railway and Diesel Locomotives Works, Varanasi were also discussed.
In his address at the valedictory session, the Chief Guest Shri A. K. Mital, Chairman/Railway Board emphasised the multi-fold strategy for making Indian Railways an efficient and environment friendly organisation. He endorsed that Railways being an efficient transport system, modal share on the movement of passenger and freight traffic should be increased by Rail Mode to reduce emission of Green House Gases for the country. He complemented organisers for organising the seminar on Waste Management, the subject which has assumed very high importance currently on Indian Railways.
Shri Hemant Kumar, Member Mechanical/Railway Board spoke about the Road map and action plan for Indian Railways to proceed aggressively on a greener path., Shri Hemant Kumar emphasised the need for a comprehensive strategy for proliferation of decentralised Solid Waste Management over major waste arising centres in the Indian Railways. He urged the entire field Units of Indian Railways to absorb the emerging technologies as Environment friendly disposal of solid waste and water waste arising in the stations, trains and colonies.
During the valedictory session, Shri K. Swaminathan, Advisor/Railway Board gave opening address and highlighted the various achievements of Indian Railways during the last year on Environment Management. Sh. Rajeev Mehrotra, CMD/RITES in his address described various projects on environment being implemented on Railways under the CSR initiatives.
On this occasion “Annual Report, 2015-16 on Environment Sustainability” was also released.A policy on CSR and the commitments made by Railway PSUs under CSR for Environment Sustainability works on Indian Railways in 2015-16 was shared with the audience by Shri Desh Ratan Gupta, Executive Director, RailwayBoard.
During the event a feasibility report on “Decentralised Waste Management Potential in Indian Railways” was presented by Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council for Environment, Energy and Water (CEEW) to the Ministry of Railways.
As part of the event, 21 officials of Indian Railways were given awards by the Railway Minister for their outstanding contribution on Environment and sustainability over Indian Railway.
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